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VERNON G LA HEIST
Three
Years,
Three
Months,
and Nine
Days
VERNON G LA HEIST
Three
Years,
Three
Months,
and Nine
Days
Three Years, Three Months,
and Nine Days :
by Vernon G. LaHeist
Edited by Sharelle (LaHeist) Temaat
: 1990
Contents
Preface
introduction . . hos ss 6 Se
Map of the Philippines (world Rook ncycieped! at
Map of China (World Book nieve lpeedl gam fae
Capture, May et See 1942 : os 3 oes
A Saitor's Prayer... 25. 4.5 405-2554 6 - ue .
7 ,
Old Hoten Camp, November 1942-August 1943. .. .
New Hoten Camp, August 1943-September 1945 .
Padlock Drawings and Machining Instructions.
Smuggling Operations at New Hoten. oe eh es
Sample columns from /he Nippon /imea .... -
Nearing the End, Winter 1943-442 (ic i», +i: me Ts
Highlights of the War (World Book Encyclopedia).
Letter of Appreciation from Fellow
Nava? Cliicereg. 6 6 eee Foe se
Ta Beezer re 6 ee ee a ??~65 See Ee a ee ge
14
ia
24
32
41
43
ad
|
63
65
Preface
What follows are Vernon LaHeist's memoirs of the time
that he spent as a prisoner of the Japanese during
World War II. Because of the fact that we live ina time of
relative peace (America has not been involved in a war of
that scope in over forty years), young people today have
little idea of what life was often like for men like my
Uncle Vernon. |
Therefore, I wanted to write his memories while he was
still around to dictate them to me, so that his children,
grandchildren, nieces, nephews and others can read them, and
so that they have a more vivid idea of how their time is
really their own. They can pursue their education, enjoy
normal family and social life, and eat basically whatever
they choose. My uncle did not have the same advantages
during the more than three years that he spent as a POW when
he was in his twenties.
Few of today's young people have watched anyone die;
the POWs, including my uncle, were forced to watch their
fellow soldiers being executed. Most of today's youth work
at jobs they choose and that they get paid for, but the POWs
were Slave jaborers..-In-shoert,; our young people enjoy the
freedom that men like their grandfather and great uncle
sacrificed part of their youth to help gain for them.
Uncle Vernon and I began this project:-on June 25, 1990.
He talked while I typed on my word processor. However, I
was not the first to think of recording his experiences. He
and Thelma (his wife) had already begun to record them. He
talked into a tape recorder, and Thelma transcribed it. So
I had those copies to work from. What Uncle Vernon wanted
to do was to enlarge on those memories, however, and to put
all the events in chronological -order.
I have a memory of my own of my uncle's POW
experiences. My Grandmother Elsie LaHeist, his mother, was
babysitting for my brother, sister and me on the evening
that it was announced on the radio that the war was over.
The three of us were sitting on the kitchen floor and our
grandmother was telling us a story when she began erying. 1
asked her why, and she sobbed, "The war is over." I asked
her again why that would make her cry, and she said, "Your
Uncle Vernon will be able to come home now."
As my uncle and I wrote this, from time to time, 1
asked him to define a military or sea term that was not
familiar to me, and I have put those in parentheses.
The following is my uncle's addition to this Preface:
I want all to know that ??~these writings are
strictly from memory. No research was conducted
and very little documentation is available to back
up any statement made.
Please keep in mind that I am trying to
yecall events that took place up to fifty years
ago. The main purpose of these writings is to put
down on paper, as best I can, my experiences in
the U.S. Navy and as a Prisoner of War of the
Japanese during World War II for my children and
grandchildren to read.
Japanese and Chinese words quoted are spelled
phonetically as I understood them. No
attempt has been made to conform to the Japanese
or Chinese spelling.
At the present time, I belong to an
organization called The American Defenders of
Bataan and Corregidor. Most of the members were
POWs of the Japanese during World War II, but a
few who managed to get out of the Philippines
before the surrender are still eligible to be
members. : :
The organization is made up of three
chapters--Western States, Central States, and
Eastern States. I belong to the Western States
Chapter in addition to the national organization.
The Western States Chapter has a business
meeting each quarter and a reunion once a year.
The reunion is usually held at the same time and
place as the national convention. Each spo lbeaig
| meeting and convention are held in different
- Cities each quarter or year.
oS The camp I was in at Mukden, Manchuria was
Hoten Camp No. 1, and the POWs who were in that
camp also have a reunion once a year, so, you see,
we keep in touch with each other in many ways. We
also have newsletters that are published once a_
quarter by the national ssh rented and the
??~=. States ' chapters.
Sharelle (LaHeist) Temaat
July 1990
Introduction
1933-1942
Enlistment, marriage, re-enlistment
I joined the Navy in December 1933 with my brother
Franklin. We were in until December 1937, stationed on the ©
USS Indianapolia, a heavy cruiser. I got married in June
of 1937 and was discharged from the Navy in December of that
year. In January 1938 my wife and I went back to Council
Bluffs, Iowa, because I. couidn??Tt find work -in the Long |
Beach/Los Angeles, California area. ,
For the next year and nine months I worked on the Works
Progress Administration (WPA), a government-run employment
project during the Depression. For this project, the
government paid the labor costs for building roads,
outhouses, parks, and so on, and counties, cities, or states
furnished the materials.
In October 1939, I re-enlisted in the Navy, and moved my
family (my wife, Betty, my son Warren, 2, and my daughter
Evelyn who was only 2 months old) back to California--San
Diego this time . On November 13, 1939, I kissed my family
good-bye, and was sent to the Philippines, where I was
stationed on an old World War I Mine Sweeper (a
reciprocating steam engine). The name of the ship was the
USS Finch. I was in the engine room, a fireman first
Class. Before the war started, I.made second-class
machinist mate, and then first-class machinist mate. °
About one week before the war started, World War II,
the commanding officer received sealed orders to depart
Manila for the south China Sea, and after we got a certain
distance at sea, he was able to open the orders to find out
where we were going.
We. were ordered to go to Shanghai, Ching +0 escort two
American Navy River gunboats back to the Philippines. The
first night at sea, we ran into a typhoon in the Formosa
Straits (now Taiwan). There was another ship with us. at
was also an old World War I mine sweep, the WSS Pigeon, |
that had been converted to a submarine salvage ship.
Shortly after we got into the typhoon, the ship we were with
had a casualty to its steering gear and started wallowing in
the heavy seas and took on a lot of water, so the crew had
tO start a bucket brigade to bail out the after-hoid to
keep the ship from sinking.
At this point, the captain of the other ship told our
Captain that he was going to anchor with two anchors, and
ordered our captain to do the same. Five minutes after we
both anchored, we both lost the two anchors. The ships were
going up and down so violently that the anchor chains broke.
2
In the meantime, the Finch tried to take the other
ship in tow so as to keep it out of the trough of the waves,
and after breaking all the manila (hemp) lines, we finally
had to take a big wire rope and put a big loop around our
deckhouse, and shackle that together, and pass the other end
to the ship we were trying to save. After many tries, we
secured it. All we could do was keep her headed into the
sea (waves). We knew from our charts that we were near some
shoals (rocks and shallow parts of the ocean), and we wanted
to keep both ships out of the then.
After keeping this up all night long, the storm ??oechairy
let up before daylight, and then we discovered we were right
in the middle of the shoals; there were rocks all around us.
Once the sun came up, you could see the bottom of the ocean!
Lucky for us we only drew about eleven feet of water (the
ship sinks down about eleven feet into the water), and our
charts showed that we were in thirteen feet of water.
| Because of this we had to pull alongside the other ship
and she being a submarine salvage ship had spare anchors on
board so she passed one to us, and we anchored both ships in
'- the shallow water so we could get her steering gear
repaired. While this was taking place, Japanese planes
started coming out from Formosa and making passes over us.
Ai ona potnt, @ fi gne oF high-flying bombers flew directly
over us, which was menacing in itself, but they didn't do
anything like fire on us. But you must remember that this
Was one Weer before oe Harbor.
oe took us ore three hours to repair the other ship's
steering gear, and then we got underway again, headed toward
Shanghai to rescue the gunboats. When we were halfway
through the Formosa Straits, we ran into the gunboats headed
for Manila. It seems they got tired waiting for us and
headed off on their own.
, So we turned around and escorted them back to Manila.
Shortly after we started heading toward Manila, we ran into
a huge Japanese Convoy, and all the ships in the Convoy
started to scatter in all directions because they didn't
want to be sighted. All but two disappeared over the
horizon, but the two started following us. They kept
sending us. messages, telling us to change course, telling us
- that we were running into a mine field, and things like
that, trying to delay our progress. We suspected they were
: trying to Give. the eee ay more time to disperse.
??oThe two ships followed Ys on inte the night; one would
drop way back, and darken ship (turn their lights out); the
other would be close by, sending us these crazy messages,
but we had an admiral on board one of the gunboats who had
given out orders to all the skippers to ignore any messages
the capone Se were sending.
3
At one time, one of the ships pulled up within throwing
distance of our ship, trained all its guns on us, and sent
us messages again to change course. But we, as ordered,
ignored their messages. The ships followed us until we were
in sight of the Philippine Islands, and just before they
departed, they sent one last message: "Change course to 180
degrees." (That's due south.) The funny part was we had ~
been sailing 180 degrees all the time, but their saying it
helped them to save face because they got their last order
obeyed. That's the way the Orientals think. | =
The big convoy that we ran into was preparing to start
the war; that was obvious with all the ships. : a
Pearl Harbor Bombed
After the Japanese departed, we went on into Manila. We
arrived in Manila on a Friday night, and Pearl Harbor was
bombed on Monday morning by their time in the Philippines;
it was Sunday morning in Hawaii, but Monday morning in the
Philippines. - | ;
So you can see what a precarious situation we had been |
in being among all those Japanese ships at sea. We figured
the war could have started right then and there if they had
fired on us. | : a | |
On Monday, December 8, 1941, (in the U.S. it was
December 7, 1941), I was sleeping on topside (the deck of
the ship), right outside the captain's cabin. At about 4:00
in the morning, the captain woke me up and told me to get
the ship ready to get underway (the boilers lit off and the
engines ready to go) because the war had begun. In the
Philippines we were expecting war anytime, but back in the
States, although people did not trust the Japanese, they did
not think the Japanese would take on the United States.
We went out and steamed around the Manila Bay so we
wouldn't be caught unaware if any bombers came over.
Bombers did come over later in the day and flattened Cavite
Navy Shipyard. The next day they bombed Corregidor (a big
Army fortress, an island guarding Manila Bay). The army was
very shortly backed up into Bataan Peninsula (off the
mainland of the island of Luzon, P.I.) and was stalemated
there, holding off the Japanese until April 9, 1942, when
General Wainright was forced to surrender the forces on
Bataan. ,
General Douglas MacArther had already left the
Philippines and turned over his command to General
Wainright. MacArthur, his party and some nurses were taken
out on patrol torpedo boats, and made a rendezvous with an
American submarine on which they escaped. |
4
The day that Bataan fell, the Japanese brought their
guns to Bataan Peninsula, right across from Corrigedor, and
proceeded to fire on Corrigedor. They even brought their
tanks down to the beach and had them fire on.Corrigedor. In
the meantime, the Navy ships that were in Manila Bay had to
keep moving around Manila Bay, and if the ships got too
close to Cavite Shore, they would fire on them; and if they
got too close to the Bataan Shore, the Japanese would fire
on them there. If we stayed out in the middle of the Bay,
they would send dive bombers out after us.
%
So we were dodging shells and bombs all day long.
That night the Skipper pulled the ship into a little
bay between Corregidor and Fort Hughes. These were two
island fortresses, and there was a little protection in the
bays because the islands were just mountains sticking out of
the water. The Skipper pulled the ship in there and
??oanchored as close as he could to Fort Hughes and decided to
take all of the crew over to Fort Hughes.
We stayed there the next day to give the crew a rest
because they had been under fire for so long and also to see
what the Japs were going to do. If they were going to keep
after these ships out in the bay, we wouldn't man the ships
Guring the day. We would just stay on ??~the island during the
day and man our ships at night to patrol and fend off any
~ Janding boats that might try to land on the island.
Up to this time, Fort Hughes had not been bombed one
time. All of the bombing had been on the other fortresses
and on Corregidor. That is why the Skipper was taking us to
_ Fort Hughes. He thought we would get a rest. All the next
day they bombed Fort Hughes. One of the bombs missed Fort
Hughes and landed in the water right next to the Finch
where it was anchored. It hit the bottom and exploded, |
opening seams of the ship, and the ship sank. Of course, it
was in shallow water, so the whole ship didn' 't go completely
under peas pst the stern.
??oThat night we went out to it and stripped all of her
guns aoe got all the ammunition and supplies that weren't
ruined??T and took them over to Corregidor. When we got there,
the crew was split into two groups. Half were sent out to
the beach defense with the Fourth Marines, and. the other??T
-half were combined with crews of other ships that had been
' lost and formed a Tunnel Guard Company in order to guard the
entrance to the Navy tunnels on Corregidor Island. The Navy
had five tunnels on Corregidor that it used for military
storage, and it needed troops to set up a defense at the
-entrances of the tunnels in case the Japs landed. I was
Bart of this second crew.
After Bataan fell on April 9, 1942, Corregidor
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WORLD BOOK map
| FORCE
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ty Cavite
«Masugbdu
7
continued to hold out for almost another month until May 6,
1942. During this period, the Japs were continually bombing
and shelling Corregidor from both the Cavite shore and.
Bataan. At times, the shelling was so heavy we couldn't
tell one explosion from another--it was just one big rumble.
Corregidor had been a lush, green, deland, but when tne =.
shelling and bombing finally ceased, there was not one bit
of green left. ;
, Of the five Navy tunnels on the island, one contained |
the galley and mess hall for the enlisted men. The men were
berthed in another tunnel, and since there was no lateral ,
between these tunnels, at chow time the men would line up on
the road in front of the tunnels and await their turn to
eat. : :
After Bataan surrendered, the Japs gained the high
ground adjacent to Corregidor and were able to watch our
every move. When they saw the men line up for meals, they
would shell the road. It was then that I was assigned to .
run the chow line during the day and go back to my tunnel
guard duties at night.
Glen Swisher
The men would line up in their berthing tunnel, and I
would stand out on the road where I could see the entrance
to both tunnels. When I could see that there was room for
more men in the chow tunnel, I would run five men at a time
from the chow line to the chow tunnel. With this system, we
did not tempt the Japs into more shelling. It was while
performing these duties that I ran into a friend, Gien
Swisher, from my home town, Council Bluffs, Iowa.
Glen Swisher was a member of the crew of the Quail,
another mine sweep. I had talked to him almost every day,
reminiscing about our high school days. The day before
Corregidor surrendered, the Skipper of his ship was ordered
to go out, and scuttle (sink) his ship that night, so the
Japanese couldn't get ahold of it, but in secret the Skipper
had prepared to escape Corregidor. He had thirteen of his
crew, and they had equipped a forty-foot motor launch with
Sails, extra fuel, charts, navigation equipment, and the
supplies they would need. He had scuttled his ship (his
orders did not tell him what to do after that), so he
commandeered an Army gasoline-powered launch, took the motor.
launch they had equipped in tow, his men, and headed out to
sea. ,
They towed the motor launch until the gasoline launch
ran out of gas, sunk it, and got into the motor launch and
proceeded to go to sea. But they had to go through a
Japanese blockade. They sailed at night when they had wind;
if there was no wind, they had to use their motor, then they
8
would pull into an island, cover their boat with shrubbery, -
and sleep in the daytime. They did this island hopping
until they ran out of Philippine Islands and eventually made
their way to Australia. As good a friend as Glen Swisher
was of mine, he never mentioned a word of this to me.
And none of the crew that was left behind knew about
it. They had to keep it secret or all of them would want to
go. The Skipper had picked the men he wanted. .The Skipper
was well-qualified for a task like this because he had been
a submarine officer and knew the Philippine Islands like a
book; he knew every cove in there. I think that is the main
thing that led to his success.
9
CHAPTER 1
Capture
May 1942-October 1942
Surrender of Corregidor
While they were making their escape, we were being
captured. Once we realized that these men at least were
attempting to escape, we wondered next if they made it. In
talking to some of the Quail crew members who were left
behind, I told them that if I ever received a letter from my
father, I would be able to tell them if they made it.
I knew that if Glen Swisher made it back to Council
Bluffs, he would contact my father, and my father would let
me know somehow. I was a prisoner now, and my father had to
disguise what he told me because the Japanese censored the
mail, and if there was anything in the mail about the war,
or that they suspected was about the war, they would ink it
Out. : 7
I heard from my father in 1944, two years after the
escape, and the first thing he said was that Glen Swisher
had been home on leave and had been there to see him. The
Japanese had no idea that Glen Swisher had been in the
Philippines.
On May 6, 1942, the Japs finally made a successful
landing on Corregidor, and the island surrendered. We were
taken to an area where the Navy had a landing place for the
Patrol Flying Boat (PFB). We were in a low section on the
island of Corregidor (we called the area Dysentery Flats)
where the Japanese could keep an eye on us from the high
ground all around us.
We had no food and only water from a brackish well. It
was hot; we had no shelter, but we were permitted to go into
the water =n erder-to-.cool off.
The only way to get food was to go out on a working
party (I happened to get on one), go into the tunnels and
strip out all the stuff that the Japanese wanted. Not only
did we get fed, but we ran onto some canned food and were
able to smuggle a few cans out.
We stayed there for sixteen days and then were taken by
ship to Manila and loaded onto landing boats. The Japanese
ran the landing boats up to the beach, and we waded ashore.
They marched us through the streets of Manila to an old
Philippine prison called Bilibed. We stayed there overnight
and the next day were loaded into boxcars, packed like
sardines.
10
We were in the boxcars about eight hours, unable to sit
down, and those who had to go to the bathroom just had to go
right there. Many had diarrhea; fortunately I did not.
These boxcars were smaller than normal because this was a
narrow gauge railway, and I would say there were probably
about a hundred men in each one. Even in a regular-size
boxcar, a hundred would be packed in. The Japanese were
moving 6000 of us.
Cabanatuan
We were taken fifty or sixty miles north of Manila to a
small town called Cabanatuan (see map on page 5). When we
arrived, it was pouring down rain, and we sought shelter
underneath an old schoolhouse. All the buildings there are
built on stilts as was the schoolhouse. Our captors had
herded us there, and that's where we spent the night.
The next day we marched about six to eight kilometers to
the old Cabanatuan Army Camp. I spent the next five months
in that camp, which was an old Philippine Army camp
consisting of nipa huts (grass huts up on stilts).
Most of the construction was bamboo, the floors were
split bamboo, and the bunks were shelves on each side of a
passageway; there were two on each side, one above the
other, and another one over the aisleway and above the
- highest of the shelves that were on each side. We had no
blankets, no mattresses, no pillows (they took from us
anything that was good). A friend of mine brought a new
pair of Army shoes, carried them all the way to Cabanatuan,
and when he got there, the Japanese took them away.
| The bunks were made of split bamboo. They were not
separate bunks, but were one long shelf on which the men.
laid side to side overlaid with the split bamboo
\ strips--very uncomfortable. But one advantage they had was
that it was very cool because air was able to circulate
among the. Spaces. :
Bach barracks would Sleep, I would say, about 125 men.
»- There were no exterior walls; it was so hot, you don't want
anything cutting off:the air.??T But the grass roof was low;
_..it overhung about halfway between the top bunk and the
bottom bunk and extended out about six feet on all sides.
(; The building. was on stilts.
There were about 6000 American POWs and about 16,000
Philippinos captured on Corregidor. The Philippinos were
sent to a separate camp; I don't know where, but the reason
was probably because they were in their own country, and the
??~Japanese were planning to take us out of the country.
We had no toilet facilities, no showers, no soap, no
dd.
toothpaste. I had a toothbrush with me. I took a bar of
Ivory soap and a small amount of toothpaste, but it did not
last long. For the rest of the time I was a POW, I scrubbed
my teeth with the Ivory soap, and it did the job.
We had to dig our own latrines, a ditch, which had to
be straddled. There was no cover, and it was a breeding
place for maggots which turned into blow-flies (they're
pretty; they look like horse flies) but they gave us_
dysentery. I don't know if I had dysentery; with no.
doctor's diagnosis, who could be sure, but I had severe
diarrhea and almost died.
It was during the rainy season and the mud was
ankle-deep most of the time. a
Our food consisted of one pound of rice per man per |
day--one pound of dry rice, which was plenty if you had .
something tasty to go with it. We had what looked like
sweet potato vines that they hauled in. We would chop them >
up, boil them, and pour the juice and some of the greens ©
over the rice.
Our own cooks did the cooking in an area covered with
grass roofs. They cooked over big woks (about four feet in
diameter) over fireplaces. Wooden lids covered the pots.
Many times the rice had worms in it, which were white and.
were difficult to separate from the rice. They got cooked, _
anda. let.of. them .floated: te: the top,..but. the cooks.never
got all of them. '
They burned wood to cook the rice, so every day they
took a working party..out to chop wood; and.I went out on a
couple of those details. We were actually glad to get out
on those working parties because the Philippinos would
sometimes come upon us and give us food or cigarettes. But
by the time you divided it up among your friends, all you
got was just a taste.
Escape and Executions
After we had been in camp about a month, four men
escaped, but they were caught about a week later. They
brought them back to camp, tied them up to posts in the hot
sun, wouldn't give them any food or water until most of them
were begging the Japs to kill them, to put them out of their
misery. After several days, the Japs did take them out in a
field in back of the camp, made them dig their own graves,
and stood them at the end of each grave and shot them so
they would just fall into their own graves. We were forced
to witness it. At the time, 1.was about twenty-six years
old.
After the escape try, everyone was put on lists of ten
LZ
men, and they announced that if anyone of a group of ten
tried to escape, they would kill the other nine. So most
of the groups agreed that if any one person decided to
escape, he would inform the rest of the group, so they could
all escape together. |
Of course, it was almost impossible to go undetected in
that part of the country unless you were darkskinned and
looked like a Philippino or an Asian. Most of those who
escaped were Spanish, Portuguese, Italian or some other
darkskinned race. |
The Sourdough Biscuit Company
So many prisoners were getting sick that the Japanese
agreed finally to start a program to kill the flies. They
brought in flour, sugar, and one bottle of San Miguel beer,
so our cooks could make some yeast. You have to keep
feeding yeast, so it will keep growing. The Japanese gave
them enough sugar and flour to keep feeding it and enough
ingredients to make buns. We made our own ovens out of mud
and rocks and whatever we could gather together, and started
a bakery. The yeast made a sourdough-type of bread, so they
called it the Sourdough Biscuit Coupe - Any bread tasted
good during those days.
The Japanese also passed out cans like Campbell soup
cans, and when we had a soup-can full of flies, we got a
biscuit. The yeast was to make the buns, to entice the
prisoners to catch the flies.
: This set off the ingenuity of the American G.I. They
made all kinds of fly catchers because everyone felt as if
he was slowly starving to death. This program got a lot of
people a lot of buns, but it didn't do much for the
??odysentery and diarrhea.
--'/ Kbout this time I got a touch of one or the other, and
I got-so bad??Tthat I was going to the bathroom at least
twenty times a day. I got so weak that I had to crawl from
my barracks to the latrine and back. I didn't think I would
be able to go one more time, but a friend of mine, Jack
Bender, noticed that an American doctor came into camp one
day. Everyone was crowded around him trying to get
??omedication. Jack fought his way to the doctor and got a few
of the pills he had, and it cured my condition in a few |
days. I don't think I would have gotten over it without the
medication because I was passing blood by that time.
Of the 6000 men, eighteen a day were dying of
dysentery, diarrhea, or pneumonia, but most of the deaths
were related to the starvation diet we were on. F-got
pellagra, beriberi, and scurvy. Some of the men went blind
from lack of nutrients. One fellow lost his sense of
i3
balance, his equilibrium. Many of them still have different
types of stomach problems, which we assume are related to
conditions in the camps.
Our officers were constantly trying to get more food
for us and different types of food. They knew that when the
Japanese captured Corregidor, they got tons of food,
including condensed milk, which the Japanese finally agreed
to bring us. But there wasn't enough for everyone. :
The Japanese doctor decided which ones needed the milk.
But they were only given half of the small cans mixed half
and half with water. I got on the milk diet. Every day I
got a fourth. .ofza can, which I shared with my friends.
After a week, I was told that I was off the diet. So I
Slipped into the back of the men who hadn't been inspected
yet, and was selected again to go on the milk diet. So I
went on it for another week. It didn't do me.a lot of good,
but we did get some enjoyment out of who was selected and
why. :
The Americans had an experimental ranch in this area
where they raised Brahma cattle. It was near our camp, SO
, our officers kept negotiating for some meat for our diet.
The Japanese finally agreed, so one of the Japanese soldiers
was sent out to shoot a Brahma, which didn't die. They
tried a second; at didn??Tt die. Av»vthird did; then the other
two dropped, so we had three steers. The Japanese took the
best of the meat, and we had the rest to divide among 6000
men.
We had a little juice, with maybe a little meat, to
pour over our rice that night. One of our men joked, "Why
- do we have all this meat tonight." Another answered, "Well
one of the steers tried to escape, so they shot the other
nine.???
14,
Forgotten Men
Cabanatuan, P.I.
September 4, 1942
In a camp of nipa barracks,
Lost deep in the Philippines,
Are a bunch of forgotten warriors,
With nothing left but dreams.
They're fighting a greater battle,
Than the battle they fought and lost,
It's a battle against the elements,
A battle with life, the cost.
Some came through the awful tortures,
Like days and nights in hell,
In that struggle for the little rock,
Where many brave men fell.
But now it's not how much you know,
Or how quick you hit the ditch.
oltts- not, the: rank that .ou once held,
Nor whether you're poor or rich.
No one cares who you know back home,
Or what kind of life you've led.
It's just. how long you can stick, it: out,
That governs your life instead.
This battle we're fighting at present,
Is against mosquitos, flies, and disease,
But with decent living conditions,
We would fight our case with ease.
It's rice for breakfast, noon and night,
It rains almost every day.
We sleep on bamboo slats at night,
We've no better place to lay.
We eat from an old tin pan,
That we're lucky enough to get,
And the medical supplies that we should have,
_ We haven't seen as yet.
We're the iosgakten men" of Corregidor,
??oFighting the greatest battle yet,
Fighting for bare existence,
|. Though we're hungry, sick, and wet.
\ \ :
Those of us who do come through,
Perhaps can prove our worth, i
And some will,tell some very strange tales,
Of a terrible ge on Earth.
Author Unknown |
15
CHAPTER 2
O1d Hoten Camp
Mukden, Manchuria
November 1942 - August 1943
Leaving the Philippines
In September 1942, the Japanese gave everybody in camp
a form to fill out so they could determine our skills. I
was a lathe operator and knew they would be interested in
that. We all wanted to get out of the Philippines because
of the lack of food, so the men wrote on their forms that
they had some type of skill that they knew the Japanese
would be interested in:
Early in October, the Japanese presented a list of 2000.
men that they were going to: move out. On October.13, they ??"
took us to the port district in Manila where we stayed in: a
big warehouse overnight and part of the next day. Then they
loaded us oh a??~ cargo ship, which had four cargo holds that. ??"
they had converted so they could haul troops instead of
cargo. There were more shelves for stacking men. The 2000
Americans were put in the two afterholds.
During our stay ene in the warehouse, por ere of
us came upon some shipping documents written on onion-skin _
paper. One of our serious shortages was toilet paper, so we
loaded up as much of that as we could carry, and it came in
handy later, very handy.
We did not know where we were going when we boarded the
ship, but we headed toward Formosa. An American submarine
fired two torpedoes at us, but the Japanese captain managed
to turn his ship so that they passed down each side of the
ship. Shortly after the torpedoes passed us, we heard two
explosions. We figured they had hit the bottom of the ocean
and exploded. There were no more attacks after that.
The next day we pulled into Formosa where the Japanese
picked up supplies, and the day after that we headed out to
sea again. We assumed we were heading for Japan, but there
were too many American submarines, so the ship had to turn
around and come back. We tried that three times before we
fineiiy got. tarougs.
While we were on the ship, our rations consisted of
three little bags of what looked like oyster crackers,
unsalted. There were also three little lumps of sugar,
about the size of.the end of your index finger, in the bags.
We got one bag for each meal, three times a day. We got
water to drink, but that was it.
There were no toilet facilities on the ship except for
16
three platforms with holes in them built over the edge of
the ship. If the wind was blowing, which it was most of the
time, it blew all over the ship. Fortunately, I was
constipated the whole trip, but most of the men had diarrhea
and had to keep getting back in line (there was a continuous
line); you can imagine 2000 men using those three holes all
the time.
The trip took about thirty days from Manila to Korea.
Three men died of causes related to malnutrition. There was
no way the 2000 could all fit in the holds at one time even
though the Japs kept trying to get them to. I slept most of
my nights on that ship on a hatch cover. It was Slanted, so
I put my hands over the hatch on the highest edge and if I
lost my Grip, I would start to slide. .I woke up and gripped
it again. But I still considered myself lucky because I was
out in the open. The stench in the hold was awful.
When we got to Korea, we were.taken off the ship at the
Port of Pusan and put on a passenger train where everybody
had a seat. They took 1500 of the 2000 of us and sent us to
Manchuria. The other five hundred went on to Japan.
Mukden, Manchuria
The trip from the port .in Korea to Mukden, Manchuria
took about three days. We arrived in Mukden (see map on
page 6) on November 11, 1942. We were taken to an old
Manchurian Army Camp, which consisted of an old bunch.of
huts that were half buried in the ground. The roof of these
huts sloped toward the prevailing winds which I think came
from the North. There was no wall above ground on the side
that the roof sloped to. On the other side, away from the
wind, about half of the building was above ground and the
rest was below.
On that side, each hut had a couple of windows and
doorways on each end. These huts were built of wood, and
the walls were a foot thick. They were double walls, and
the interior of each wall was filled with mud and straw for
insulation. 3 | |
c The roof of each hut had about a foot of mud and straw
-on°it also??Tfor insulation. | |
: Each unit consisted of two long, narrow buildings
joined together at one end by a room that contained the
washroom and latrine. The buildings had a center aisle down
the middle and. a shelf on each side of the aisle that was
about six or seven feet wide, long enough for a man to lie
on, his feet pointing toward the aisle. Each "bunk" had a
Little shelf overhead where the men put their personal
belongings. .
aed
The barracks probably held about eighty men each. Each
barrack had one stove, which was about two feet wide, and
the front part of the stove where the fire box was, was ©
about three feet high and had a metal plate on top with a
little round plate that could be lifted off like our old
kitchen ranges. It had a small fire box about a foot
square. The back part of the stove was about five feet high
and two feet wide. It was all made of brick except the
metal eee
The back part of the stove (the high Secet was where
the gasses passed through a series of baffles. The FITSe
baffle came, from the floor and extended up to about a foot
from the top of the chamber.
The next baffle ran from the top of the chamber to
within about a foot of the floor and alternated back and
forth, so the smoke would take an up and down, zigzag course
as it moved upward. This allowed the brick to absorb as
much heat as possible.
They were very efficient. You could hold your hand on
the smoke pipe that went out of the building without getting
burned even when a roaring fire was going.
We were allowed only one scuttle of coal per day per
stove, and it was poor grade coal. We had to mix it with
mud and roli-it into @ bali and Tet it dry betore-we ceuid
burn it, getting a pretty hot fire going with wood first.
And the fires could not be lit until five o'clock in the
evening.
The camp was surrounded with two barbwire fences, one
about twenty feet outside the other.
About the first of December 1942, the Japanese assigned
all able-bodied men, except those assigned to duties in
camp, to work at an old Manchurian machine tool factory in
Mukden.
The camp was about six to eight kilometers from the
factory where we had to work, so we had a pretty long march
to and from work each day. Because our diet contained so
much water, we had to make several stops on the way to work
and back to drain the liquid that accumulated in our bodies.
We usually made these stops in the same locations.
The Dead Chinaman
One day we were going to work and stopped in one
particular location to relieve ourselves. It had a big
ditch along the side of the road, and we noticed a dead
Chinaman lying in the ditch. Every day when we went by, we
noticed the Chinaman still lying there with all of his
Clothes on.
18
??oThis was a common sight in China because the Chinese
believe that anyone who claims a person's body is obligated
to take care of his family. So unless he was a part of ;
their family, people just would not claim bodies.
In this case, it was winter, and the body was frozen.
One day when we passed by, his shoes were missing. And
every day after that, when we walked by, we noticed that
something else was missing.
Finally he was lying there naked.. Then when the spring
??~thaws came, we stopped there one day, and a pack of dogs was
eating on him. Wild dogs ran through our camp all the time.
In Manchuria, in the winter, wild dogs run in packs and they
would run through the camp, searching for food. ,
Some of the men who stayed in camp and who did not work
in the factories, got some maize rope and made a noose in
order to catch the dogs. They laid the noose at the corner
of the buiiding, put a handful of cooked maize in the center
of the noose, and stood behind the building, waiting for the
dogs to come.
A pack of dogs would come through; one would come and
stick his head in the noose to get the maize, and they would
jerk the rope and get him around the neck. Several men
would come running out with clubs and beat the dog to death.
Then they would skin him and trade the pelts to the Japanese
for cigarettes. The Japanese used the dog fur for lining |
their boots and making their hats. The POWs then cooked the
??~meat and ate it. |
I had a friend in camp who was in on this dog meat
business and he kept trying to get me to taste it, but I
wouldn't have anything to do with it. Finally, however, 1
consented because so many others were trying di. . it tasted
pretty good! The meat was a little sweeter than beef, not
bad at all. So after that, whenever he offered me some, I
took it. That is, until the day we saw the pack of dogs
eating the dead Chinaman. I quit eating dog meat after
that. | 2 ee eS
= The first winter in Manchuria we lost about 200 men out
of 1500. It got to forty degrees below zero there, and the
ground was frozen so hard that we couldn't dig holes to bury
the dead, so the Japanese would stack the bodies in an old
warehouse. The bodies froze, so there??Twas no stench, but
when the spring thaws came, we had a warehouse full to bury.
- When??TI was captured I had a bar of Ivory Soap which I
had managed to carry with me to Manchuria., I broke it in
half and used it to brush my teeth. The Japanese had, issued
a tooth powder that came in a paper bag called Lyon's Tooth
19! 4
- Powder (not Dr. Lyon??T s, just Lyon??~a). But it was no
good for teeth; it was like eabaulti powder and would not mix
with water. So I used the soap, and we used the tooth
powder to polish our pipe stems. Also, we found that if we
got diarrhea, we could take a teaspoon of that powder and
wash it down with = and ait would plug us up!>.
I had left the other. half of my Ivory Séax wrapped up
in paper, and the rats ate it. But the half that I used for
my teeth did a pretty good job because when I got back, we.
had our teeth examined, and I had only two small cavities.
The dentist was amazed that my teeth were in such good _
shape, and I told him that we didn' t get anything to eat
that would rot teeth. | =
The Factory
The factory we were forced to work at consisted of five
huge buildings made of corrugated steel with the standard
roof configuration that big factories had at the time. Tt.
had a big gable with skylights and was about 200 feet wide
and 300 feet long. It had been a Chinese factory called the
XXX Machine Tool Company where small drill presses, small
bench lathes and lathe chucks of different types were
manufactured. |
In the 1930s the Japanese began collecting all kinds of
machine tools--mostly American made, used machine tools:
huge planers, drill presses, milling machines, grinders,
gear hobbers, and other kinds, which were stored in these
factories. ~ Our initial job was to set: the tools up. The
land there was gravel and sand mostly, which was very
unstable ground in which to hold machine tools; so big holes
would have to be dug and a massive amount of concrete put
down in that soil to make it stable oe to mount the
tools on. 7
The machine tools had to be level after they were
installed and they had to remain level, otherwise they would
not be accurate. So we dug huge holes and filled them with
concrete to make foundations. In the process of filling the
holes with concrete (if there were no Japs around), we would
pick up anything we could find--small lathes, drill presses,
any kind of tool--and throw them in the holes and fill them
with concrete.
One day a bunch of us were called to the "infirmary,"
to be examined by a Japanese doctor. . Some of us were
ordered to take shots. We hadn't particularly complained
about being sick, so we really didn't know why we were
there. But we all had some beriberi, or diarrhea, or
something like that, so that's what we thought the doctor
was treating us for. 3
20
Two kinds of hypos were given that day: a small one,
about 10 cc, and I thought it was for beriberi. When they
injected the serum into my arm, I immediately felt a hot
flash through my body that went through my arm both ways, to
the top of my: head and to the soles of my feet. In a matter
of a seconds it was over.
They used a 50 cc syringe to give the other men a shot
in the thigh, and these men were given two 50 ccs of this
serum, which would raise a knot on their legs about the size
of a-fist. The men would have to sit and rub it until -1t
went down before they were allowed to leave. We never knew
what the treatment was for, but someone suggested that
perhaps the big shot was calcium.
One of the Navy hospital corpsmen taught the Japanese
medic how to refill the syringe without withdrawing the
needle, which saved the POWs the pain of a second injection.
One of the first things the Japanese did in Manchuria
was: to teach us to line up and. count. like military troops.
In the process, if somebody made a mistake and forgot what
his number was in Japanese, the Japanese soldier would try
to humiliate him by making him crawl on his hands and knees
twenty or thirty feet around a tree and back or take the
whole troop and make them play Ring Around the Rosy or Drop
the Handkerchief.
Our food that first winter consisted of boiled maize,
boiled Chinese cabbage, and garlic. And we had buns from
the Sourdough Biscuit Company. We had brought yeast from
the Philippines, and the Japanese gave us enough sugar and
flour to keep it fed on the ship. -In Manchuria, they gave
us enough maize and wheat flour to keep it going, so we had
a biscuit, for each meal. That was our diet every day. No
. salt, sugar, or spices except garlic.
Because of the blandness of this diet, we really had to
work up an appetite before we could eat it. Most people 3
. think that because you're starving, you can eat anything,
??~but that is not true. Even though you might be starving to
death, you. still have to work up an appetite to eat food
) that is just plain tasteless. Consequently, those who
didn't work had- no appetite for ene food and were petue tty
Reed amin
Most of the men ??~who got serious cases of hawiherd and
OY Sean lack-of- food related diseases were the ones: who did
not get exercise.. There are two types of beriberi: one is
wet-beriberi (our own term) and the other is dry-beriberi.
??~The effects of the first are that the body fills up with
fluid, usually starting in the feet. As it progresses, the
next place it hits is the face especially the eyes which
almost close from swelling, and eventually the entire body
ah
swells up. ??oThis form of the disease, although less painful
than the dry-beriberi, seemed to be the type that killed the
most men.
The other form usually affected the feet only, and was .
so painful that the men couldn't even stand a sheet over
their feet. Some men even took a walk out in the snow at
night to numb their feet; some even froze their feet in
order to kili the pain. Others hung their feet, over the
edge of the bunk and put them in a bucket of snow so they
could: gO tO a oe at??T night.' ,
Diarrhea was another common illness even when our food
got better. I think it was caused by our diet containing so
much water and so much fiber, which had absorbed a lot of
water, and probably the fact that the men would drink the
cold water because it looked so refreshing, but they knew
they should have boiled it first. The reason all the water
there was polluted was because the Chinese fertilized all
their crops with human manure. The water table is so high
there that it just seeps down. You can dig down six feet
and hit a well. | ; - rE
Keeping Up Our Spirits
Amid all this starvation, disease, and death, and the
fact that we were not free and were ao young (in our late
teens and twenties), we had a problem keeping up our
Spirits. One thing that helped, of course, were our
religious beliefs. We had a number of laymen who could
perform religious services, and we usually managed to do
this on Sunday if we were in camp. I had learned a little
prayer from my Grandmother Barton, which I said every night
as I was going to sleep; I prayed myself to sleep in other |
words, and any other time that 1] fert my Spirits falling.
The prayer was:
In Rn. £4 oy of the Lond, I am quickened and
atnengthened in mind, body, and aoud.
Other ways that we raised our spirits were by
participating in some sort of hobby: . One group of men
decided that we needed music, so they built a bass fiddle.
There was an Army Captain in camp, Grover, who had
experience in building musical instruments, so he supervised
the project. The other men who took part had been assigned
to the carpenter shop in camp. They didn't have many tools,
only saws, draw knives, some chisels and sand paper.
Furthermore, they had to work on the sly because we had
no permission to do this work. They had no material, so
they ripped wood off the barracks that we lived in in a way
theat.it wouldn't be noticed. With the héip of the tien
LL
working at the factories, smuggling things like shellac and
iodine for dye and piano wire, they came up with what
appeared to be an authentic bass fiddle.
All the while they were concealing this from the
Japanese. The hardest thing to come up with were the
strings, but they finally took the piano wire, wrapped it
with coarse khaki thread that the Japanese had issued us to
mend our clothes, and shellacked the whole assembly and made
strings that made an acceptable sound. I had manufactured
the four worm and wheel string tuners at the factory and
smuggled them into the camp. ,
After they had finished the instrument, the Japanese
were inspecting the barracks and noticed the bass fiddle.
The men told them that they had brought it with them, but on
closer inspection, the Japanese noticed the khaki thread
wrapped around the strings and made the prisoners take off
all the thread, clean it off, and put tt back Of the Spoois.
Then the Japanese confiscated the wire because a wanted
anything that was metal.
Fortunately, the Japanese at the factory were raising
pigs (American POWs were taking care of the pigs), and
feeding them the slop from the Japanese mess, to butcher and
sell to the Japanese who worked at the factory. The
- Americans saved the entrails from the first hog that was
butchered, cured them, and made some authentic strings for
the bass fiddle. Then we had some real music and our,
spirits were boosted. .
The saebidee never aid get wise that the bass fiddle >
was made in camp; it looked so authentic vole ae thought
aur Americans had brought it with then.
4 One American had managed to carry his guitar to
Manchuria with him, so we had a small combo--a guitar and a
bass fiddle--and some expert musicians to play them.
Rumors also played a big part in keeping up our
spirits. Somebody was always starting one that the Yanks
were on their way with their rolling kitchens (a term
invented by the guy who started the rumor for an Army truck
that might contain a: kitchen). Germany fell so many times
??~that when it ??~finally. did fall, we. ga the word within
aMGRee -but. didn't eae 1...
, We had Peuived there in November, and having come out
of the tropics we had tropical dress on. Even though it
wasn't too far into. winter yet,-to us it was bitterly cold.
It got down to 40 degrees below zero every winter. They
didn't have a lot of snow, but the valley that Mukden was in
was a big plain like Kansas, and the wind blew summer and
| winter. Mukden is on about the 42nd ??" pele the
game as- ehieags
29
Even that first winter, it was so cold that we put
every piece of clothing on that we owned and did not take >
them off until spring. We even slept in them. They did
furnish us with some Japanese Army uniforms, padded
khaki-type cloth, rather warm really. They gave us big,
rabbit-fur lined boots. But they weren't leather; they were
Cloth with a rubber sole. :
Also that first winter I was permitted to take one
bath. The Japanese bathhouse was an old wooden building
with wooden floors with spaces between the boards to let the ??"
water drain. There were big wooden tubs with a metal
bottoms about six feet long, four feet wide, and about four
feet deep and built on top of a firebox. Big wooden cups
were used to dip water out of the tub to pour over
ourselves. The water was nice and warm, but the building??T
was so cold that when the water hit, it was cold. We just
stood there shivering.
We were able to wash our hands and face whenever we
wanted to. Most people, however, did not have soap until we .
started working at the factory in December 1942, and we
discovered we could make our own soap there out of soybean
Oil and lye. The Japanese had a hard time getting mineral
Oil, so they used soybean oil even in the gears of their
tools. They also used a stream of soybean oil on their
cutting tools, like lathes, milling machines, and gear
hobbers to keep them cool. We would go down to the foundry
and were able to get lye there, but we had to make up
excuses in order to move around somewhat freely.
We mixed the lye with hot water and poured it into the
soybean oil, stirring it all the time, and when it wae
completely mixed, we would pour it into a mold, let it
harden,.anc cut it into bars.
We were also able to get peanut oil and castor oil.
occasionally and we experimented making soap with them.
Castor oil made the best soap; it resembled castile soap,
which we used on our faces. The Japanese only issued us
about two bars of hand soap during the whole three years.
24
CHAPTER 3
New Hoten Camp
| Mukden, Manchuria
August 1943 - September 1945
Description of the Camp
The Japanese built a new POW camp for us nearer the
factory where we worked. It was much nicer than the old
one, but it wasn't anything to brag about.
It was all concrete brick, surrounded by a fifteen-foot
high wall topped with electrically-charged barbed wire.
There were five two-story barracks buildings that were
connected in the back by a single-story building that was
our latrine. Fach building on Gach fioor had os Ccencer
aisle, and on each side of the aisles there were five bays
with aisles down the center of them at right angles to the
main aisle. Each bay consisted of two wide. shelves on each
side of the bay aisle. Each floor housed 250 men; each
building housed 500 men; 3 buildings made bunks for 1500
men. ois, :
The shelves that we slept on had mattresses of straw in
a canvas bag. We had tubular pillows made of canvas stuffed
with straw about eight inches in diameter and about a foot
long. Each man was issued one sheet and one blanket. At
the head of each sleeping shelf was a shelf about a foot
wide for storing our belongings. , .
There were stairwells on each end of the buildings, and
the ground floor on the back of each building was a
washroom--a couple of long troughs with running cold water,
for washing hands and faces. Off the washroom was the
latrine. :
Every other bay on each side of this main aisle had a
concrete stove called a petska (?), built in the shape of a
cylinder standing on end (pipe shaped) about four feet in
Giameter. It had a small firebox about a foot square and a
foot deep. The flue was in the shape of a coil set in
concrete, so as to keep as much heat as possible in the room
from the coal that they burned.
The barracks had wood plank floors and wood partitions
between the bays. The walls were not finished (painted);
they were just bare wood.
The second-story windows that overlooked the wall had
louvered screen-like covers that were not adjustable and
were designed to keep us from looking beyond the wall, but
they were not very effective because we could see between
the louvers.
Zo
In the new camp we had our own galley and did our own
cooking. Food was carried from the galley to the barracks;
each bay had one man assigned to get the food.
There was a Japanese side of the camp where they had
their offices, storerooms, and guards' living quarters. The
brig (jail) was on the Japanese side also. We were not
permitted to roam freely between the POW and Japanese sides
of the camp. There were guards stationed at the gate
between the two sides, and men had to have special
permission to go to the other side.
One building was used aS an infirmary. We had a couple
of. American doctors and one Japanese doctor, but the only
medicine we had was aspirin, iodine, and maybe some first
aid medications. Sick men, if they were sick enough, were
housed in that building. : |
Sweet Mush Eve
Shortly after we were transferred to New Hoten .Camp,
our officers intensified their requests for new types of
food, so we got cornmeal and soybeans in addition to the
Maize, Chinese cabbage, and buns. In the summer, the
Japanese had us doing some gardening, and some of the
vegetables that we raised were occasionally added to our
diet like carrots and potatoes.
The biggest help was the cornmeal mush and the soybeans
because the soybeans were relatively high in protein. We
invented all kinds of ways of fixing them. Sometimes they
-were cooked into a = or boiled and mashed and made into
patties and baked. But we absolutely never had any
flavoring, not even a grain of salt. So it was still a
bland-tasting diet.
We did get sugar to feed our yeast, and there was
always a little left over, so on Wednesday morning they put
it in several buckets of mush. It wasn't enough really, but
you could taste the sweetness, and the few buckets were
paige around so everybody a some.
??~Consequently eee bts became known. as Sweet Mush
2EVe- :
??~s
On the oh oli si
??~At the new camp, they started paying us for our work at
the factory. We worked ten hours a day, seven days a week,
except one Sunday a month when we stayed in camp to clean
our barracks. We were paid twenty sen a day. At pre-World
ay It money sae ereemecigt that amounted to about five cents a
aye 7 a)
26
Of course, we didn't have anything to spend the money
on, so most men used it to gamble with. After about three
months, the Japanese had caught so many men gambling that
they quit paying us, but they still made us sign the payroll
each month, and said they were banking the money for us.
They also confiscated all the money they found floating
around the camp.??T 3 le 2
Needless to say, we never did see the money we.
supposedly made. .
Several other working groups were set up outside the
camp. They took about fifty men to a tannery, and they were
housed there, so we never saw them again until the war was
over. :
Another group of about fifty worked in a crane factory,
making cranes with lift mechanisms. These men were housed
at the main camp because their factory was nearby.
Several other small groups worked at other factories in
the area also, living at the main camp.
Our Work at the Factory
It took us almost a year to get all the machinery set
up so they could go into production. At one time I was
assigned with two other men to clean up trash inside the
factory. The two men were manning a yo-ho pole (we called
them yo-ho poles because that is what the Chinese chanted as
they carried the poles, "Yo-ho, Yo-ho,") with a basket
mounted between them and the other man was assigned to fill
up the basket with trash. When there were no Japanese
around we would just lean on our shovel or yo-ho pole and
talx.
The minute the Japanese showed up, we would start
working. The two with the pole would raise it up, and the
other would pick up trash. If the Japanese left right away,
we would dump the pole and go back to talking. If he hung
around too long, we might have to go dump the trash. But
that didn't happen too often. We wanted this job to last a
long time because it was easy. :
To move heavy machinery, when there was no crane, if
the foundation of the machine was flat enough, we laid round
poles at one end of the machine, lifted the machine (with a
whole gang of men) and slipped a round pole as far back
under the machine as we could, sliding other poles under it
and rolling it along on these poles. As we moved the
machine along, the poles would come out at the back end,
and we would put them in at the front until we got it moved.
The Chinese helped us with this heavy work. One next
ai
to me must have felt sorry for me because I was so skinny,
and as we worked he tapped me, telling me in his language
that he wanted to help me; - wanted me to pretend to lift
while he did ene work.
Because Henry Ford was a Japanese idol, they were
setting up a factory to build automatic screw machines on a
production line patterned after Henry Ford's production
line. They had an expert engineer that had visited a Ford
Motor Company production line, and he had designed the
factory we were setting up.
We had Americans working in every department in the
factory, and as I said, one group was taking care of the
Ppigpen. They also had a vegetable cellar, where we had a
group working. They were supposed to cut the bad parts from
potatoes and carrots, send them to the pigpen, and send the
good parts to the Japanese galley.
But the Americans cut off some of the good parts and
put them in the garbage headed for the pigpen. The
Americans in charge of the pigpen, carefully smuggled the
good stuff over to the American galley, which was dumped
into our soup. Normally all we had to eat at the factory
WaS a bowl of soupy maize, but with these added goodies,
plus a little soybean oil that we stole from the factory,
our soup was??? a little more tasty.
??~Sutiggzang Motors
Besides the pigpen, we had men working at all the
-. storerooms and the garage. The president of the factory had
a big, black limousine with a Chinese chauffeur. The men
working at the storeroom discovered from the Chinese
chauffeur that there was a market for electric motors in
Mukden, so they stole motors out of the storerooms, smuggled
them over to the pigpen, and the men there would hide them
(in holes they dug, covering them first) until somebody
wanted one in Mukden. When someone wanted one, they
smuggled it over to the garage and put it in the trunk of
the limousine, and that night after the chauffeur dropped
the president off at his home, he would deliver the motor to
whoever ordered. it, collect the money, and bring it back to
ee see : Then ebasgeee who-was involved aot a cut,
| This went on for several mont he when the Japanese
discovered that motors were missing, I guess when they did
their ??~inventory. $0 they called in their. "FBI" to??T catch the
culprits. Everybody knew the Japanese "FBI" guy who showed
up in white coveralls with a pair of binoculars. He stood
behind buildings, peeking through his. binoculars, or stood
on buildings; we could see him plain as day, but he finally
caught. the whole deal--from> amuggd sng sae motors to the
??~Ppigpen and to ene garage.
26
So one day they arrested everybody involved, put the
Americans in the brig, and the Chinaman too, I guess, but
they discovered that there were so many Japanese involved,
including some high officials, that they dropped the whole
case and let everybody out of jail. . 3
But that did stop the smuggling operation.
Sabotaging Production Lines
By the fall of 1943, the factory machinery was all set
up, and we were ready to start production. The POWS were
assigned to their trade groups. I was-assigned to a
Japanese, a lathe operator named Tabana; I was to assist him
and learn their production methods, even though I was
already a qualified lathe operator, in order to be qualified
in their sense, and in order to go into production on my ,
own. | i .
Other men were assigned to different departments. We
had Americans working in every facet of the manufacturing
process such. as the foundry; jig and.tool; drafting, ..
blueprinting, inspection. All the sabotaging that we did
was never planned but was done on the spur of the moment.
No one discussed how something was sabotaged. Everyone
acted on his own, and I think that's why we got away with
it. It was an unwritten law to delay or disrupt their
Operations. And everyone on his own job worked toward that
goal.
When I was working with Tanaba on the lathe, there were
times when he would turn the operation over to me while he
went to the bathroom or after other tools or to talk with
someone. Chances were that I would think of some way to
ruin the part that he was making. He never got wise; he
thought I was just another dumb American. I saw him make
many mistakes too, however.
Differences Between Cultures
The Japanese were a little sadistic at times, but a lot
of them were taken out of the back hills and were like
native head-hunter types, rather barbaric, and liked to
torture animals and humans. I think that they felt inferior
to the Caucasian race, and when they had us as prisoners,
they liked to humiliate us. At this time, Japan was not so
industrialized; some areas were, but many of their products
were copies of ours and were inferior.
One morning when my boss, Tanaba, came to work, I asked
him if he kissed his wife good-bye, and he frowned and said,
"Dami...Dami. {Japanese for. ??~'no.'). Wifeo.peicgh.. Baby
okay."...It's part.of..their culture that .men.don??Tt.show
affection to their women.
29
There, are a number of differences in our cultures:
Their saws cut when you pull them toward you; here, when you
push it away. When you wave here, you mean, "good-bye";
when you wave there, it means, "Come here." They bury their
dead in China half sitting up, facing east and only about
two feet underground with about two feet of dirt on top, so
there is a mound over the coffin. In the spring they place
a square of sod on the burying place. The older the grave,
the more shovels full of sod have been placed on the graves
and the higher they are. We saw things like this as we
marched from the barracks to the factory.
Children, mostly Korean and Chinese, were going to
school at the factory, learning to be machinists. They
struck us as being much younger because they were so small,
but they must have been in their early teens. They spent
hours learning to use, for example, a ball peen hammer,
hitting it over and over. There was a long workbench and
they all struck.at the same time. Then they. would work at
another task, all doing it at the ??~Same time.
In Production on Our Own
After several months working with the Japanese on
different machine tools, the Japanese decided that we were
ready to go into production, so they assigned us to go to
work by ourselves. A Japanese production manager was to
oversee our work and figure out ways to increase our
production. We were determined, however, not to produce for
them.
Apparently we were successful because after going
through three Japanese production officers, they decided to
take us off production and replace us with Chinese who were
more oercuree They had never worked under a free market
system. | 3 |
| Ail the Americans who had been assigned to Haechire
tools, were assigned to a repair group; ??~they were
responsible for keeping the machine tools in the factory in
operating condition. Most of those were old American tools,
and the Japanese had no blueprints to repair them. They
~ Called in outside machinists, a group of American POWs, who
??osent the broken parts to draftsmen to draw parts, then sent
them to engineers who sent them to blueprinters. _
, The blueprints were sent back into the shop, and that's
where I was; we were assigned to make the new part from the
blueprints. Someplace along the line, somebody made a
mistake purposely. ??~If we saw that the blueprint was
correct, we would make a mistake in the shop.
oa on the neat Gime the janitors were Americans, and when
they came across a machine that was torn apart, they would
\
3 -
sweep up some of the parts and throw them in the trash. As
I said before, none of this was planned, so the Japanese
never got wise. It got so bad that by the time the war
ended we had about a Sars of their machines torn apart ;
awaiting repairs.
The factory was set up to manufacture an automatic |
lathe to make small screws and rivets. One machine could
put out thousands in a day. So the Japanese could produce |
screws and rivets by the thousands by machine, but they were
interested in selling the machines. So they had the Chinese.
civilians produce these screws and rivets one by one by hand
on a lathe instead of mass producing them on a machine. It
would be like our making ice cream by hand while we sell
efficient ice cream machines. Or sewing garments by hand
while selling sewing machines. : ;
Manufacturing Good Padlocks/Bad Padlocks
This repair shop that they assigned us to had lathes,
grinders, gear hobbers, milling machines. . . It was a
complete shop. We had no direct Japanese supervision, which
gave us an excellent opportunity to engage in our own
hobbies. Many of the POWs made smoking pipes, cigarette
holders, and dental tools, for example. Each man had a tool
box where he kept hand tools, and we had no problem getting
them because Americans were issuing them. The Japanese or
Chinese who wanted one had to put in an order and sign for
them. However, we were only working in the daytime, whereas
the Japanese and Chinese had a night shift which was when
they stole our tools. So we had to keep running to the tool
issue room for more tools. We planned, therefore, to make
something to lock up our tools. ?
One of the POWs came up with a basic Page: for making a
combination padlock, and after pooling our ideas, we came up
with one that had four rings on a spool (see diagram and
instructions, pages 32-38, which are reproduced from memory
as Close as possible to how they were done the first time).
The padlock consisted of four rings, each of which had
ten numbers around the circumference for setting the
combination. This was set on a spool with a notched staple
that matched up with the inner diameter of the ring, and
when the ring was turned, it would lock until the proper
combination was worked.
When we finished the first lock, one man demonstrated
it and the rest of us watched. A Japanese official, whom we
were not aware of, was looking over our shoulders. When he
saw how the locked worked, he grabbed the man who was
demonstrating it, and took him away. We thought he would
end up in the brig and us too, if for. nothing else, for not
working.
}
a1
The demonstrator was gone for about an hour and when he
returned, he was all smiles as we gathered around to hear
him. He had been taken in to the president of the factory
and was made to demonstrate the padlock to him. The
president asked if he could make more, and the demonstrator
said yes. The president said he wanted a thousand for the
factory, that he could set up his own production line, but
the president couldn't furnish any material. That wasn't a
problem; we could get anything we wanted.
We got to work, stealing what we needed from different
parts of the factory, some used and some new materials. We
made them and serialized them, keeping a record of the |
combinations. As we turned them over to the Japanese, we
gave them lists of the serial numbers and the combinations.
But we didn't need that information. All we needed to do
was pull on the staple, find the ring that turned the
hardest and turn it until it clicked. We would continue to
pull on the staple, go to the next ring that turned the
hardest, turn it until it eae | and so on until the
staple came out.
We fade the Japanese idols that way with only one hole
through each ring. But we made our own more secure. We put
each ring in a milling machine and milled a hole halfway >
through the ring surface adjacent to each number on the
ring, so each ring had nine false holes and one real hole.
That made our rings, which we only made for Americans, more
dzfficuit to pick.- Shortly after wé went into production on
these locks, the camp commander found out about them and
ordered the factory to ??oturn over the first fifty tof the??T bad
locks) to him. None of the Japanese had a secure lock that
they could depend on. All the Japanese-made locks that we
~ had had experience with at the factory, we could open with a
pair of inside calipers; they were that undependable.
However, the Japanese had not learned how to pick their own.
We could pick ours, and the ones we made for them, but
not the new ones we made for ourselves.
There was such a denawe for the first batch that we
_ made for the factory that all the Japanese and Chinese were
trying to trade us out of them with cigarettes or food or
-/money aS soon as we made them. We never did deliver the
first thousand because we traded so many off, and when the
cd
war ended we still owed. them =) hundred locks.
New Guitar and Tobacco Aare
I mattered before that we had an old guitar and an
expert guitar player. He wanted a new guitar, so the men in
camp made the body, and I made the frets. He wanted a
curved keyboard, so I made the frets out of 1/8 inch:
diameter brazing rod and we smuggled in a piece of hacksaw
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mee Gee -@??" - .- ---6 ee oo ee ele we ee | em ee + ee ee
é ??~
j ee eee we we es ee ~ ee eee
co
R SECTION OO
OOl Gy ,
Le
SHEET 3 OF S
MACHINING INSTRUCTIONS
Note: Material selected fon pieces /, 2, anc! 3 ahould be
the aane ar difficulty will i experienced in
drilling the hole thnough the arvol and ning if
different metals ane usec.
/. PIECE 1. Machine Lower body of 2 azvod, drill and tap
tu necetve upper apood {lenge Pei 2) ??~i
LOWN. o not dacll to aecetve ataple
(PIECE 4) at thin tune.
sich 2. Machine and inca! Gates. De not dncll |
ataple hole at thir time.
RS
3. PIECE 3. Machine tre outside diameter, inside eee.
Clee. anc thichnens of cll foun ning. Do
not do otarenr machining at thin time.
4 Aaurenble the four ninga to the Lower apood piece,
inatall the upner azool {lang e ??" pigeten jagainit
the naing é the | ning axe not held firme in place
~(ahoul not tunn) then or hae @ p at oy im stock
between the uppen apool cece the top RUN
ao that ning wall beh Ff fin in place when apoo
flange piece in tightened against them. - ,
by ??"_ a 3/4" = cincle centered on the face o
per apool flange piece. Centen punch fon dn nclling
en ole holer as ahcwn on view ode Beene 2, Baill
(/4"diam. hole for Long Soa of ata le to deoth a |
ahown on drawing. Dnil le for jee Leg of ataple
to de, oth an Ahown on drawing. Extaeme cane muat be
ee ke pues to ensune that rings do not turn while drilling
the hole for the Long Leg of the ataple and to enue
ee | that the drill doer cig ee wie center during the
a iaeabe ie Becaure you ane daillin half into the
Cee ??" apool and Aalf into Re ma the fill will have a
e@
tendency to neft. Zé may necemrany to use a
dnill guide on jig to avoid thir tendency to drift.
ics While the ninga ane still in poaition on the apool oe
(=
- Se
ofaeo eo???
insent a piece of //4" diam. nound atoct in the Aoleyou -
have juat cailled fon tre ??" {eh of the ataple to hold ;
ning??? tn poaition. Uaing a dividing head on othen
accunate method, acaibe tne ten Lines on the aunface of
the nings [ar ahown on dg.) that will be used fon
poattioning the combination numbens. ??"
7. Remove the ninga from tre apood and machine the /??? dian. ??"
counteraunz poration of tre rings as atoun on the drawing.
8 Again uaing ea dividing head, cl en Se
AD, tne one 1/4" Hoe, x 1/16" dees Piles Able ae
ahown on tre dwg.. | a :
9. fo manufacture the ataple (piece 4/ cut off a piece of
fa" drill aod § 7/8" Long.
| fa) Polish the drili nod with fine emery and/or
crocus cloth to youn aatinfaction. ??"
(6) Machine the grvove on the end of the Long les
of the Ginn fon the atapde netainen pin ai
Ahown on the dis. | !
(c/ Mare a 180 degree (//4" nadiur) bend in the
other end o¢ tie ataple Located??T an ahown on
the dwg. 3 |
(d) Ausemble the apool [pieces / and 2/,
fe) Inrent the Long lex. of the ataple into itr
hole in the Apool with. ahont lea outaide
the Apool [not in ita hole in top of apool/,
(~/ With the Long Leg of the ataple finnly bot-
tomed out in its hole and the ahont 6 u
againat the outside of the upper a ao Pianos,
nark the end of the ahont, Leg 3/16" down from
the top of the upper apool flange. (ihe
oe punpore of thir procedune ir to ensure that
ae when properly asmemnbled the Long leo of the
eee atap e will bottomed out in its Lode, and
ig tne ahont Leg end will not touch the bottom
of its hole/. Cut ahont Leg an manked, | :
(9) To Layout the notches on the atanle for machining
intall one ning on the bottom portion of the
apood { counten pee aide down) with the thnough hole
aligned with the hal? hole in the Apool body, then
innsent the atarle in poattion and holdi a =
ataple finmly bottomed out in its hole and ning
. es i
. ??" ao-+- == ??" os
2:
eo ee wee -
cae eae Payers fo ae ee RAS eet aS Ge, ANS Ul eit cde RSLs lt, Neat gl a aise aa eae fee Nig hh et ore eee RN eet oy SHR fr SSPE et ea ice EY ae ree tg ear Ra, ae me ee wen ei Je ash SPIE Ne Ch meen gag Pao ca ES as aS ane eee NR era GE eat cree a he
held finmly in place acnibe a Line on the
ataple where the top of the ning toucher the
ataple. New add another ning and repeat thir
operation until the top of the notch fon each
ning har been acnibed on the ataple.
(A) Now clamp the ataple in a vice with the ahont
leg of the atazle down and the upper surface
nhithe Long Leg horizontal and panclell with
the machine bed plate you will be doing the
machining on. When property aligned machine
the 4 (//8" wide) notches 1/8??? dake. After
machining file the root of the notches to a
25/6: ae an shown on the dwg. [aection DD/
ao that when the flange 4 the RUNG iA tunned
into the notch tt will not nub on the noot of
notion , ,
(i) Aanremble all 4 ning on the apool {counter bore
aide down] and intall the top flange of tie
apool, Align the through holea witn hole in
the apool and insent a piece of //4" round
atock in the hole to hold the ninga in poaction,
detenmine where on the apool you wish your
combination aet point to be and acribe a Line
on the upper and Lower apool flanger in Line
with the acaibe Line on the rings. Now deter-
mine the combination you deatre and atamp on
enonave the combination numsena on the ning
at thi aet point. Kew atamo on engrave the
_nematning numbena on the ninga ao that each ring
haa numbers from 0 to'9 aati clockwire
(including the combination aft you have
\
quat marker??T). ,
(3) Vow nemove the plece of round atock and drill
on drill and tap the hole oe the ataple
netainen ar ahown on the duo. Insert the
the ataple in poaition and Uniall the ataple
- retainer pin on aet acrew in place ao that no -
-excean presiune ia exented on the ataple. Do
- not aet the atanle retainer in poaition perna-
??"nently until you check to ree that, with the
combination aet, the ataple will back out
. aufficiently to awing the ahont Leg aride to clean
Se ee e+,
eee eM oe tO
ate
este tle -
eee, ee
the pinks, ao that you can eas the tek
on a harp keep, Sate tunn the nings and
enaune they tuan eanily and the Le biaetion??T
can be set and ataple unlocked without
difficulty.
(k) Before final uae eniune all ananp edger
ane remov nom hs and lubricate moving
pants with WO40 on other Light Dl. |
(L) After the combination has been sbisig bi
engraved on the ning, the combination can
atcill be chang ed by neannanging the RUNGA
on the Pi) 24 spre ah ane aos aaa
ao
blade, so a slot could be sawed across the keyboard for
installing the frets. I also made an adjustable bridge. We
took the string tuners off the old. guitar and put them on
the new.
All the Japanese buses and trucks used charcoal burner
for producing gas that was used as fuel for combustion
engines. The fuel that made the gas was hardwood blocks
about two to three inches square. There was a big tank on
the back of each of these vehicles that was filled up with
hardwood blocks and a gas burner at the bottom that would
start the wood burning, and when the wood was burning well,
a -lid was put on the big tank, clamping it down. to be
airtight, and the wood. would smolder, giving off a gas,
which was piped to the engine, starting the engine and
keeping 1&6 Eunning until i2t-ran out of.gae.. Tnen the whole
process had to be started again.
Because so many wooden blocks were needed, the Japanese
kept a group of Americans busy chopping them up. It wasn't
that boring really because anytime they ran onto a knot or
burl, they sent them into us and we made pipe bowls out of
them. The woods were hardwoods, mostly oak, and the knots
or buris had a nice grainy look. Some of our pipes were
works of arts. Some looked like Sherlock Holmes' with a
curvec stem.
'The men who worked at the crane factory were able to
get hard rubber about an inch in diameter and about any
length we wanted. So they would smuggle it to us in Camp,
and we would smuggle it to the factory to make our pipe
stems out of. We turned the stems on-a lathe to the proper
_eonfiguration,-then drilled about a 1/8 Inch hole through
the stem and ahout a 1/4 inch hole in the .end of the stem
that went into the pipe bowl; then we would manufacture a
filter out. of aluminum to: screw into that end of the stem to
filter out some of the moisture. We shaped the mouthpiece
of the stem with a file until we got the proper
configuration there. Then we would grind down a piece of
hacksaw blade and insert that in the round hole of the stem
and. gradually saw through, making a slit for the mouthpiece.
= In order to make them look purchased, we used a piece
of toothbrush handle which we cut in a diamond-shape or
Cloverleaf-shape and embedded it in the stem, which
purchased pipes have. We also flattened the bottom of the
??~bowl and burned "Briar" or some other brand name into it. I
don't know of anyone who ever got caught making pipes.
because they looked as if we had bought them somewhere and
brought them with us. :
To make a curved stem pipe, we formed it the same way
as above then put it in boiling ??~water until we. could form it
into whatever shape we wanted. After the forming was done,
t
40
we used our Japanese tooth powder, which was no good for
teeth, and used it to polish the stem and bowl. It made a
nice gloss. We usually rubbed soybean oil into the outside
of the bowl and got a finish like linseed oil might. give.
i
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41
CHAPTER 4
Smuggling Operations at New HDeeu
1943-45
Daily Searches
In the mornings, after breakfast, all the men going to
the factory would line up and count off in Japanese. Anyone
who missed his count would get hit with the sword end of the
Japanese OD's (Officer of the Day's) scabbard or would
receive some other minor punishment, and we would have to
start counting allover again.
Once the correct count was determined, we were marched
to the factory where there waS a cloak room at the entrance
where we hung our coats if it was winter. We went through
there to the other end to the factory. At the end of the
day, when we were returning to camp, we would line up at the
factory side of the cloakroom and be searched by civilian
guards who worked there. We would then go through the
Cloakroom, pick up our coats, and as we exited the other end
of the cloakroom, we were searched by Japanese soldiers. :
We were then lined up and counted again, and when they
determined that we were all there, we were marched back to
camp where we were searched again. Sometimes they would
just pat our pockets and bodies all up and down and we would
go on into camp. But some of the ODs were rougher than
others, especially the Japanese doctor. When he was on
duty, he would make everyone strip bare and the guards go
through all their clothing before they could dress. He even
did this on winter days when it was fReetang: cold, and we
were outside when we stripped.
He was the worst OD; we knew that when he was on duty,
we couldn't smuggle anything into the camp.
soit took quite a Jot of -ingenuity for us to smuggle.
One method we used was to throw an item too large to conceal
on our bodies over the wall as we approached the gate to the
camp, hoping that none of the guards saw it. Then after we
got it into camp, we would slyly saunter over and pick it
up. This was rather risky, as there was a tower on each
corner of the camp with guards watching. I don't recall
anyone ever getting caught smuggling that way, but we didn't
use that method very often; it was a last resort.
If the item was small enough, the man smuggling would
hang it on??T a string, tie it around hie neck, and drop it
down his back between his shoulder blades; then when he was
searched he would straighten up and throw his shoulders
back, creating a hollow in his back, so the searcher
wouldn't feel it.
42
Another method was to make items at the factory
carefully enough to look as though they had been purchased
back in America and we had brought them with us. Those were
not concealed, but we depended on convincing the guard that
we brought it with us when we were captured.
Once I made a cigarette holder with a wooden mouthpiece
and an aluminum metal tip. When I went back to camp that
day, I took it with me, but didn't conceal it, and when I
went through the searching line at camp, the guard
questioned me about it, and even showed it to the OD, but I
was able to convince them that I had bought that back in the
Philippines.
The Nippon Timea and "Go Aheads"
The Japanese who worked at the factory were not
supposed to bring newspapers into the factory, but some of
them did, and as they were eating their lunch, they would
??osit on the floor and have the newspaper concealed in their
lockers, reading it during their lunch hour. They were
sitting facing their own locker and the door was open,
helping to conceal what they were doing.
When we spotted a Japanese reading his newspaper, we
would keep an eye on him to see where he put it so when he
_ went to the bathroom or left his tien gate someone could
steal it.
Several men had made wooden clogs and put about a 2"
wide piece of belting across the toe area so they could walk
in them. We called the clogs "Go Aheads" because if you
??~tried to walk backward, they would fall off. Several men
/ who made the clogs hollowed out a section of the sole that
would be covered with the strap, the part that goes under
the = ball, of the foot. |
These were nada used for suuoes tac a section of the
Fe err a section at a time, folded up real small, and
then they were delivered to a British officer in camp who
could read and write Japanese. That way we were able to
confirm a lot of the rumors that we heard from the Chinese
but couldn't depend on. We had no other means of
_communication from the outside world except occasional
English newspapers that we also couldn't depend on. The
yas eng hese teed dey tr themselves, for example the
90n Timea, which I still have several copies of. (See
: ea aGe 43-46. ), eney 601d for @ignt or. 15 sen and we made??T 20
sen a aay SO :
, Another. way that we : ailiee tee??T was to use old bicycle
inner tubes and basketball bladders that we were able to get
occasionally at the factory. If we had any liquids like
alcohol or shellac to smuggle into the camp, we would use
TOKYO, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 1943
q
Promise of Prim
Solitary Detention With Central. Re
For Mahatma Gandhi. Dartic sti of
Planned by British | pie:
Rien ee pe DJAKARTA, September
Indian people are considerably
worried over the state of health
of Mahatma Gandhi which has
reportedly deteriorated, it is learn-
ed from New Delhi. The British
authcrittes are said to be keeping
the Mahatma in close custody and
to have taken steps to make im-
possible any contact with the ont-
side world. It is also learned
that the British-Indian Govern || 2
ment has temporarily planned to :
remove Gandhi to a more distant,
solitary place of confinement.
ei sie
Shown above is a map of New
Guinea with the center of the
e here American troops recently made a land-
jgoned in the enemy report is located on the
e northeast of Lae.
1a nT LT ee
KODAMA SURE
OF JAVA??TS AID
Military Adviser Feels
Confident Indonesians
ve Help fo Win War
mecca 2 >
Pe 4 we loos ame on
hesians was realized today w
officially announced the es
Councils, both administrativ
participate. |
The establishment of t
promulgated by the Japane
Soviet ee me?
Domei
BERLIN. Sentember _ 6.
powerful Soviet naval unit
tempted to land on the east ce
of Luga Bay, on the Gulf of }
land, early this morning,
Was forced to withdraw a
suffering heavy losses due
counter-attack by German for
according to military authori
here.
wd
SEPTEMBER 7,
1943 |
|
vo AMID Y
AN, CHINA LAID
-esources and Increase
rosecution of War
WAGT
Contemporary Japan)
??~niable that due
ire China has. now heen...ahic
annul those wnequal treaties
Naive mae hindered its lea:
iy advancement. |
To Strengthen Continent
to Japar's
a* =davans- economic prilcy
rt China is designed to sirens:
the economic structure of the
inent~ is .apparent from. the
rod it has instituted to with-
- the circtlatior of military
> anrl stabilize national fivech-
it Since April 1, Japan. has
ended further issuance of
??~ary scrip in south and central
the??T object being to he??Tp the
sha
ped
ia,
ing Government in unif
wacy - with = Central
*
oot BBE
oe
.CECrVG
??~ notes on the one -hand and to}
fevnite. With??T It. fe Vila. the
onal economic pow?r benef. :al
the stability of the people's
iheod on the other.
sowing the landing of Japanese
??ocS on the shores of Bias Bay
ulv, 1958, military scrip came ints
wation in scuth Chima; wheréas
some measure was. executed in |-
??~ral China in, November, 2000,
*n the Yanagawa corps lanes
the shores of Hangchow Lav.
March this vear, Japan granted
sedit af ¥200,000,000° to Nanking,
nlementing the credit of Y1i00,-
009 accorded in July last year.
* financial support has enabled
Fane to holster
ric. ??oBesides, several joirrt eco-
enterprises have , been
lertaken to speed up the pro-
tion of commodities and exploi-
on of natural resources. ey
??~the Anglo-American s¥ mpath>
??~ard China is aq ??~superficial pose,
,/ seit lacks sincerity, After the
f Burma, the Anglo-American
??~amy jaa gave its word of honor
t the Burma Road ??~would be
pened soon with a view to dis-
ching war ??~supplies to Chung-
g:.Up till now, however, it has
3 ony failed to fulfil its solemn
mise, hut bath London = and
??~ahheian have - expressed their
bitity to send sufficient quantities
wor materials to General Chiang
i-csuek. This shows how far
itain amd the United States are
sic
ceva toward Chungking. Dr. T.V.]
-, Foreign Minister of Chung-
its currency.
JAPANESE WAY OF
THINKING
Shimokobe Nagaru
By SANTARO
Of tho Nippon Times Staff
- Part UI
Nagaru, when young, had an
ambition ¢o shine in the world, at
least when he Ieft his obscure home
in Yamato province and came to the
great rich citv of Osaka, then awak.
ing to a new sense of culture. So
we may surmize from his early
noems. Soon he was disillusioned
and ??oforsook the world.??? Why? We
do not Know for certain. He was not
a Buddhist as Keichu was. But as a
Confucian scholar which he certain
lv was, he must have ??~tasted some-
thing of the same gloomy experienc?
which had fallen to the ancient sage.
In Osaka he had found few real
good scholars such as he had hope
to meet. He was therefore thrown
upon his own resources and continu
ed his favorite studies by teaching
himself. He was not understood or
appreciated. Tnose only he saw best
thriving who were Shams and char-
latans till he decided it was not
worth his candle to court the favors
??~of the: world, and became a re-
cluse, lonely, but independent and
proud. |
Such apparently was the view of
??~Keiko, author-of the ??oLives of Ec-
centrics,??? already referred to who,
himself ??~@izzruntied with the ways
af the world, wreaked a kind of vi-
carious vengeance hy dedicating his
literary ability to the adoration of
??oeccentrics??? who had spirit and me-
rit and were on that??T account cold
shouldered by the world.
-. Was He Lazy?
The writer, however, cannot al-
es
together endorse such thought.
Nagaru, it seems to me, was so
devoted. a student of Classical
Leecning that he had little lust for
anything else. The joy of his pur-
suit was so preponderantly great
that the common pleasures and
??~allurements of Hfe had no weight
??~with him. Classical Learning was
to him the discovery of a new world
peopled by wise good men cf anti-
quity whose mode of life struck
him as being far more natural, be-
autiful and free than that of his
coniemyoraries; each new word -or
phrase he had excavated from the
classical mines, long disused, was
the thoughts and manners of these
and Madame Chiang Kai-shek.
ye
wondrous people. He forgot to
marry; or no women cared for a
mar 60 strangely preoccupied.
dj portugese traders at Macao,
to. him. a fresh picture {llustrating.
KHPVrceogy Wet
DD rere
| UNSCRUPULOUS MACHINATIONS
OF BRITISHERS IN CHINA BA.
Britain??Ts Merciless Spoliation of Continent Began
os Opium War of 1842
To European traders in the 17th
century, the most profitable articles
of trade in China were silk and
tea. Europe was supplied with
these articles through Central Asia
even before the water route to India
was discovered. The Portuguese
were the first to monopolize the
trade of these articles by the sea
route.
Under the region of Charles I
early in the 17th century, a body of
English traders sought to open for-
eign trade with China and obtain-
ed license from the king for ' this
purpcse. They sent a small flest of
warships to China, which arrived
at Macao jn 1635. However, the
who
considered themselves pioneers in
the opening of China trade, resent-
ed the arrival of English competitors
at the island and made all possibie
efforts to impede their path until
the latter left for Canton.
When the British fleet arrived at
the mouth of the Canton River, the
Chinese army suddenly fired upon
it from the Humen fortress. The
commander of the British fleet im-
mediately accepted the challenge by
bombarding and capturing the for-
tress. As the result of this conflict,
China was forced to trade with
Britain, a special place for tran-
saction heing designated ore ??~the
walled city.
-~Used Canton as Center
Since that time Britain carried on
its trade with China, with Canton
as the center of activity, and with
this citv as their commercial base,
the British built up their- com.
mercial interest until they out-
rivalled all the traders of other na-
tions. As most of the traders of
other nations depended upon Bri-
tish ships to ship their cargo to
Europe, London, naturally became
the central market of Chinese arti-
cles in Europe.
British merchants in China ship-
ped a considerable amount of silk
and tea to their country for which
they paid an enormcus sum of
money. China had been a country
of self-sufficiency and did not care
to import any European articles ex
.cept silver. But Britain could: not
afford to: export its silver forever??T to
??~China without selling some commo-
dities to the latter. The British mer-
chants, in their search for something
| signed
By DR. SHUMEI OKAWA
finally sent them an ultima??T
manding that the criminal
od over to Him Wisin a eer
or he wold atiack -he Brit
mercial area ovrsite the
walled cHy. The situation
so tense that foreign trader
British..60ninietcia: town $6
??~fuge in Macao. bu: the Br
??~mained and accen:ed the
challenge.
The clash betv2en the
and. .British forces took plac
neighhorhond of Kwangen
latter firing upen the Chinc
As the British and n.
their bases of operation in Ir
were better trained, they w
to rout their enemy without
difficulty, capture . the «C
archipelago, Hongkong,
Shanghai, Wusungz, etc. The
flcét-then ??"penctrated the
Lapeise.. thterriy ing the
cation between north an!
Cigna. As ts ??"Betisn
threatened the position of. kb
the Chinese Government we
tustiv forced to come to i¢r:
Britain.
Rea
-
Nanking Treaty Force
As the ??T result of this
??~China was forced to sign t
king peace treaty on ~ Au;
1842, the -first unilateral tre
posed upon China, which r
??~in force until recently. Ac
to the stipulations of this tre
the supplementary treaty wh
in , 1847, ??~Britains
Hongkong. With this islan
base of operation. it workec
ly for the conquest of East |
a century until Japan cap
last year. In addition to th
ain forced China to open
Fukien, Ningpo and Shan,
foreign trade ports. China v
??~forced to abolish all the res:
for using these ports In it
course with foreign countr!
to adjust its custom duties |
Jing with the stipulations
treaty. Thus the treaty 1
foundations for the establish
extraterritoriality for foreis
dents in China.
The Opium War of 1842
most cruel blow dealt Chin
damage she suffered has bee:
reaching consequence. As:
sult of the ??odisastrous dcf
Ching dynasty lost its prestig
it never regained.- As the fi
were opened for free foreig
whieh. ??~would _replace silver exports.
bh nesaan cla... ann . thousands
Yeliv
the case of Chung-
usted themselves in
nerica for increased
vu VY UDsibssiny
1 Chungking
ast Washimgton con-
1crete decision Was
ing the question of
cing. Britain and
more interested in
own cause than that
If General Chiang
hoping that Britain
would come ??~to his
ultimately, it must
e is not facing the
The Anglo-American
waging war for the
igking; they are pro-
ties for their benefit
ally cut off from the
-American iniluence,
; been placed in a
n to replenish its
sitv. The meager war
are filtering through
pte to its. war. pul:
is why Chungking
severely criticizing
ashington for attach-
yortance to the Bast
nd are not hesitating
ne veracity of the
n non possumus, It
ul desire . that . the
Nn ecommarrtt snould
eo eolnet..dupan ))
strategic Gt
ina.
op toward that direc-
qana that more War:
be dispatched to
d that the qualitative
ive strength of the
force now stationed
China must ??obe In-
ntially, so that Japu-
on the continen:, as
mainiand of Japan
Jed. Though London
m are quite in agree-
shungking on these
ey are admitting the
carrying out such
lly in view of the
Japan.
aveds
of Relations .
survey of the Sino-
tiors from the Meiji
inauguration of the
g Government elo-
ates the manner ir
ive progressed. Up to
of the Sino-Japanese
45,* China??T regarded
ort of inferior nation.
ng Japan's victory in
yanese War of 19045,
_yery much interested
try, and cordjal rela-
stablished which lasted
ued on Page 3)
tas
fo ee
GAL FF bee
ewe delle. swe
blandishments of men of wealth
had any glamor for him. What
looked like his hatred of the world
was only his constant absorption. in
his studies. His seeming rudeness
but shyness or ignorance of Goln-
mon. etiquctte.
As to his chronic laziness which
everywhere dogged his name, it
may be explained by some con-
stitutional disease??T to which a man
of his age and sedentary habits is
subject. He was probably in his
later years liable to fits of apcplexy
to which it is presumed he finally
succumbed.
Wess dy
??"??"S >
Sworn Friends
Thus analyzed, his life and char-
acter will cease to be so abnormally
queer as it may seem at first, and
now there remains his work to be
considered. This may bes, be cone
in conjunction with that of IKkeichu
who was his greatest Successor, or
his only worthy successor who had
not only improved upon what he
had done hut completed what he
had begun but left unfinished. It is
universally conceded that Nagaru??Ts
chief mission in life was to impress
and inspire Keichu and in some de-
gree guide his studies??T for without
his stimulating example and uncon--
scious tuition Keichu could not have
accomplished all that he had.
There is a difference of 16 years
between the two; Keichu was 17
years when he first fell under the
charm of Nagaru??Ts peems, and re-
solved 10 emulate their power and,
beauty, and from that time dated a
friendship and a comradeship in
learning which lasted tili death de-
paraied them. Many poems are found
ir. the collections of the two men
which were exchanged between
them as Jetters are between intimate
friends, and one of the most famous
Keichu sent to Nagaru reads:
??oWare o shiru hito wa kimi nomi
o shiru
??oHito mo amata wa araji tozo
o-mo-0.???
You are the only man who knows
me, neither are those who know you
very many??"I fancy.) That is; ??o1 am
the only man who knows you.???
Contrast in Character
Their friendship was bound with
an exquisite tie of sentiment which
owed as much to the contrast be-
tween them as to their community
of tastes. Keichu was priest and
Nagaru layman, the one was ortho-
dox Buddhist and the other Con-
fucian scholar; a gap of 16 years
separated them. But these dispari-
ties served to enhance rather than
LU Llbdddaa, thsscaaiy bbb UpPUlas GA Prdase UE
selling opium to the Chinese.
Up to the middle of the 18th ce1.-
in Persia and exported to China
from that country. Drug addicts, in
those days, were few in number but
a penchant for opium smoking was
not absent. Taking advantage of
the situation, the British traders be-
gan to cultivate poppies in India
and started the opium traffic to
China. | :
The Chinese demand for this arti-
cle began to increase by leaps and
hounds.
for China for not only were her
people becoming a physical wreck
but the balance of trade began to
run in favor of Britain. Such a trend
was bound to precipitate a financial
crisis in China, increase the price of
silver against copper,
hand, and decrease tax revenue, on
the other. :
Prohibited Opium Import |
In the face of this situation, China
prohibited the import of this drag
in 1796 and in 1815 prohibited her
people from smoking opium. In
1815, the opium imported into China
by British merchants totaled 1,000
cases. In 1822, Yuan Yuan, gover-
nor of Kwangtung and Kwanghsi.
took drastic steps such as the prohi-
bition of the transaction of opium,
but the amount of drug importcd in
that year reached no lIcss than 30,000
cases. The Chinese Government
repeatedly issued the same ordin-
sance eveLry. year in its anxiety to
keep sie -people away from this vice,
but the number of opium smokers
comiinued to increase. The wisc
Chinese authorities, as a last step.
finally imposed a high duty on
opium. This led to smuggling. In
the meantime, the vice had spread
even among high Chinese officials
and it became well high beyond the
control of ne Chinese Government??T.
Suppressed Opium Trade
The Chinese Government, Serious-
ly concerned over. the growing po-
pularity of opium smoking, adopted
the policy of suppressing the opium
trade by apyiealing, if mecessary,
even to force of arm. In order to
carry out this policy, the Chinese
Government appointed Lin Tse-hsu
as cabinet member and dispatched
hin to Canton.
Kin was a man of courage and a
passionate patriot. Upon arriving
atCanton, he insisted that the opium
ovned by foreign traders were con-
tnband and therefore must be sur-
rmdered to the Chinese authorities.
H» seized about 20,000 cases of drug
obstruct the??T perfect understanding
between them; they deepened their
common devotion to the same object
??"classical learning and love of
ancient
(Continued on Page 3)
%
o1 this ground and set them afire.
A this moment, a Chinese was mur-
dred by a British sailor. Lin de-
manded the British authorities to
éliver the murderer, but the latter
poetry. Both were unmar-|psitively refused toa accede. So in-
glen; was their attitude that he
t
a
.f
??~
{
tury, opium was produced chiefly
The situation foreboded ill
on the one
eign sips DePaN CO LreyuUell??? thie
ports, with the result that the Chi-
nese market was flooded with cheap
machine-made praducts from Britain
and the United States. It was in-
evitable ¢hat China??Ts handicraft in-
dustry should collapse under such
CIPCURISKANCOS.. 9S
On the other hand, the consump-
tion of opium vastly increused,
causing no small cutflow of precious-
metal from the country. In ad-
dition to this, the reckiess com:
petition among foreign traders had
a destructive effect upon -Chineye
industry. ??" nica
The War precipitated a general
disintegration of China??Ts financial,
moral and political systemg which
were prostrated under Western in-
fluence. The construction -of irriga-
tion and dyke was totally, neglect
ed with the result that farmers suf-
fered greatly ??~in time of drought
and flood. Brigands ran amuck and
the people were constantly harass,
ed by disturbances in all parts of
the country. The greatest distur-
bance of the kind was the Taiping
Rebellion, which continued for 64
years beginning in 1830. Taking ©
advantage of this situation, the
Western nations, particularly Bri-
tuin, entrenched ??~themselves more.
deeply in China...
Would Have Divided China
If Japan did not adhere to its
policy for the preservation of Chinas
territorial integrity, the Western ns-
tions, which swept dewn upon East
Asia after they had ~??"partitioned ~
Africa, would surely have @ivided
China up among themselves and
Britain would have had a lion's
shure.
With its powerful military
strength, Japan prevented China
from being partitioned by che West-
ern FPowars. The British ontrenched
themselves economically in the
basins of the River Yantze..the most
important artery in China, more
deeply than any other nation in the
world, When Japan tried to make
am economic advance to the basins
of the river, the British made all
possible efforts to frustrate it.
One of the examples of this British
ohstructionist policy against Japan
occurred in 1903, a year after the
conclusion of the Anglo-Japanese
Alliance. In that year, the Nippon
Yusen Kaisha bought the shipping
interest from a certain Englishman
who had been operating the ship-
ping industry on the River Yantgze
about 30 years, at several million
yen. Seeing this, the Britishers liv-
ing at various port cities along the
coasts of Shanghai and Hankow
adopted a resolution, prohibiting the
N.Y.k, vessels from mooring in the
area used for the purpose by the
former British vessels. This practi-
( Continned on Page 3)
a steauav
ween the
Vang and
mal Gov-
mn under-
qatentions,
td [orgs
toward
war. and
ater Isast
ee esas
trenatlven
nake the
+ More
are exert-
jntenance
mo OF the
??oease and
capac.
generally.
he =intc-
upporting
extrater
4se returs
and. the
autonoms
Vina. ane
se-.in the
nderstand
Which has
rights in
sin China
he people
nomy and
ing amonz
positively
: Situation |
??~evival of
niinues to
tin Ane 1s
ae warfare,
re against
Axis camy
there kas
ing power
omomicail
cated state }
cessary) iG
the China
1 [fF the
the Ffuiure |
counted
'g true in-
??~s enforee
es on. the
_. aided by
art of. the
een: China
.btedly be
and proper
tion which
??~me during
n China is
pains and
sistaice of |
nd to sup:
tions of the
have . been
rer, by. the
de in Narth
the countr??T.
pperation of
ics which
ite to... the
ing power.
Para! y
aaent
Above: A party of Javanesn
arrives in Tokyo and pay homage
Tioperial Palace the first thing.
Below:
Regions here to pr coscente their studies line mp on the platform
on an insoection tour of Japan
of the
South-
the front
the
att plaza in
Students from
. (Continued From Page 4)
cally meant that the N.Y 4G firn
hought the land but that since it did
not buv the air space over the land
it could not erect a building on the
land. Japan lodged a strong protest
against the British authorities but
since the British were adamant. the
N.Y.K. opened negotiations with the
authorities of the French settlement
and finally reached an understand.
ing for the use of the French water-
Freya: wo = -* aie ats
Japan had to contend with such
mean British. maneuvers repeatedly
hut it fougl! : consistently
until ait built up its economic posi-
tion along the hasin of the river to
the present stage of develonment.
Japan's cconuinic development aiong
the cousis of th river, was nothing
less thin 2 history of economic
contention with Britain.
and
* awe
its wav
??ohis article ig a translation from
Dr. Shumei Okawa's book entitled
??oHistory of Anglo-American Aggres-
sion in East Asia.??? / .
heart for Japan and Manchoukuo.??T
??oT offer my gratitude to the Kwan-
??~tung Army which is ??~devoted to the
guarding of the northern borders
day and night throughout the four
ccasoans. ??oWhe Japanese authorities
and. ??opeople on the spot are well
conscious of the momentum of the
current situation and are fully co-
operating with Manchoukuo. Japa-
nese colonizers in Manchoukuo, too,
North China, Mengchiang and Man-
are ??~endeavoring to increase the
foodstuff production with a pride to
make themselves the foundatior
stones of the firnier consolidation of
Manchoukuo.
??oTt is Prov idential at ??~this. moment
eicul-
Chink
that the ??~coming harvest of as
tural products in Central"
choukuo, throughout whicn EF nave
inspected, is very good this year.
envisaging the crops more Ran: A
normat year. As a result of my.in-
seen the real conditior in which the
Greater East. Asiatic peoples are
wholeheartediy cooperating. with
spection in these regione??? l--nevt'}
ern
at Tokyo Station for the check-up,
British Machinations .| Permanent Amity Laid
In China Bared Between Japan, China
(Continued from Page 4)
until 1911, when the national re-
volution added a new perspective
to the political consciousness of
the continent.
The formation of the Nanking
Government heralded a new era of
Sino-Japanese rapprochement and,
despite the Anglo-American pres-
sure, the Tokvo-Nanking cordialitv
hegan to be more and more close.
President Wang Ching-wei and his
collaboraters determined to recon-
struct China on the principle of
Sino-Japanese??" interdenendence and |
thus for the first time they assum-
ed the full responsibility of guid-
ing the rebirth of the continen: and
prom«ting genuine understanding
hetween Japan and China. The
Japanese Government readily ac-
quiesced in the views of Nanking
and pledged itself to extend all pos-
sible aids to it. By securing the
assistance of Japan, the Nanking
Government swiftly ecensolidated its
power and contracted political.
economic and military arrangements
of mutual advantage and security.
The Anglo-American nations re-
taliated the appearance of Tokyo-
Nanking amity by constructing a
military blockade ring against
Japan~ and intensifying ' aid to
Chungking. Eventually, they sever-
ed economic relations with this
country without any justifiable rea-
son. Then Japan opened negutia-
tions with the United States to seek
an amicable solution, but Washing-
??~on ??~brought out a proposal which
demanded the virtual submission of
Japan and the whole of East Asia
to its Far Eastern policy.
US. Precipitates War
In this way;
ministration precipitated the cur-
rent war in Greater East Asia, and
Japan within a = surprisingly brief
time caused the eclipse of alien dn-
fluence from this part of the globe.
Among other things, it must be oh-
served ) that. because the United
States demanderl the repudiation of |.
the Nanking Government, Japan
had no other alternative but to take
up arms to protect the integrity of
that administration. This makes it
plain to what extent Japan had be-
??~the volume
the Roosevelt ad-|
plC iiss wt a Chri RS Chere 6 Oe Fie
weit Shrines. Later they. wer-
shipped at the Mosque in Yovogt.
??oThe scenery along our wav to the
Metropolis was a wonder.??? said
members of the party to newSspaper-
men when they had settled down at
the hotel.
??oWe were also struck bv fine
paddv-fields which We saw at every
agricultural village we passed. We
also saw from the window of the
train the activity of factories which
are forging ahead toward the in-
crease of industrial production.
??oWe expect to stay in Japan for
half a month. We hope to grasp the
East Asia during the interval.???
Japanese Way of
Thinking
(Continned from Page 4)
ried., Both shared the same unworld-
Iv outlook on life and g tendency to
shirk the affections and vexations of
the common workaday world.
Nagaru??Ts works may be broadly
divided under the three heads: his
study of Manvo poems, embodied in
??oManvo Navose???; Its
work on the ??opillow words,??? entitled
??o'Makura-kotoba_-_ Shokumei Shu???
(candlelight on some pillow words
collected); thirdly, his own pocms
and miscellaneous writings in ??oRui-
jin Sosui Shu??? (dust and =
collected).
By far the most important of his
works was that on Manso poems,
which imperfect as it was, was
brought to a completion by his suc-
cessor, Keichu, who called this work
hv the at once very modest and the
very famous name of ??oManyo Dai-
shoki??? (work on Manyo poems hy
proxy). Keichu implies that it was
the work undertaken by a delegated
workman on behalf of a master
L cena seen)
contribute to the welfare of the en-
tire sphere. The present activities
of Nanking are heing directed to-
ward that efd, and Japan is offer-
ing its best service to new China
to help it foster its economic poten-
cv. No amount of- baseless critic:
ism can obscure the merit of this
constructive -economic policy of
o ;
candition of Japan, leader of Greater
praitizarm 2 Ff
since heen Su]
it clearly mar
mark in the
study. and a
In the progres
WEN. 1A EN
pioneer = resea
??onillow words
to a high pl
a succession «
of whom Kar
Rane. (he _f
taunting wor
forctgh site
literature on
they constitut
ahle and th:
studdes in oO
Without knov
tean he no apt
ftancing. af
many a tyvpic
sparkiing gern
Tig: Nagar
af exploring
Ifetds of Jay
has not. cor
efoug:s to se
honorable ple
National Tear
he happened
pioneer in th
ef Yedo Peric
??"
ga, r7=-- G
1, Ginza Nish
- The Gallery Upsta
2 BE
i KO, 2,. BI
. T
-Wiygb an
Best |
1At
Chr. P
PARIS
_ &chome, Tamura- cho, Shiba-ku~
(Three minutes from Imperial Hote
BEA
(Mme. T. YAMAGUCHI, Pro}
PERMANENT WA
Special Facial Massage, Manic:
Te
serene
ELLE DOF
come prepared to fulfil its pledge
47
those wrapped around our waists. Prisoners smuggled in
a lot of alcohol. The factory president's car used a
pure-grain alcohol, not wood alcohol; all their cars used
pure-grain alcohol mixed with glycerin as an anti-freeze in
their radiators. Some of the men tried drinking that
anti-freeze and got diarrhea.
Leo Pae Tsu and the Old Chinaman
A little Manchurian named Leo Pae Tsu got into the
factory compound, sneaked in I guess, and took a liking to
the Americans and they to him. We sort of adopted him as a
mascot, making him wash his clothes and take a bath (he ,
wasn't clean at first like all the Chinese), and learn
English. He must have been an orphan. We would feed him,
and he would help us around the factory, and he was useful
in confirming some of our rumors because he learned enough
English to repeat what he heard from some of the other
Chinese.
He was about fourteen-years-old, but looked a lot
younger. He's the one who told me what Ta Beezer meant (see
Ta Beezer joke). If he could have been located after the
war ended, some of the prisoners-would have found a way to
bring him back to the states.
There was another old Chinaman who used to stand at the.
door of the latrine every morning when we came to work. He
bowed and said, "Good morning," in Chinese to us. He stood
there because the minute we got to the factory, because of
our diet, everyone had to go into the bathroom especially on
cold mornings, and he knew he would be able to see us as we
headed there.
We were, aS I said, fond of the Chinese, and made
things for them like daggers, so that they had some weapons
that they hoped to use on the Japanese when the war was
Over. But we never knew if they used them for this purpose;
I'm sure they did if they got the chance because they hated
the Japanese. We traded the daggers that we had made out of
files and hacksaw blades for food and cigarettes. They were
afraid to make themselves because if they got caught, they
would get their heads chopped off.
Of course, before the war, the Chinese were known to
use severe punishments also like chopping off the hands of
thieves.
If the Americans got caught, they were beaten and put
in the brig, which doesn't sound like harsh punishment, but
in the winter, you needed to put everything you owned on,
because there was no heat there. If the temperature got
below freezing, they would light the fires and bring the
temperature up to freezing and put them out again. And
48
prisoners had to stand all day long, from five in the
morning until nine at night, except at mealtimes, with
guards watching over them. I was lucky never to get thrown
in the brig although I had some close calls.
Outside Details
Those men who weren't assigned to machine tools or
other skilled work, were assigned to an outside detail. One
Japanese who supervised these jobs, had been educated in the
United States, studying to be a minister. He was in the
States when the war started, and was one of the few Japanese
who were traded for some American diplomats and other
officials. I think these were the only trades made during
the war. He came to Japan on the Gnipaholm??"??"a Red Cross
ship used for delivering packages and prisoners. He spoke
fairly??T good English, so he got the job, thinking that his
Ministerial training would help him get along with the
American.
He assigned the Americans into groups, making an
American the leader of each group. When he had a job to do,
he would discuss it with the leaders, and they made a
written contract. If the job was accomplished in less time
than the agreement called for, that group would get to rest
and relax for the time remaining according to the contract.
For example, there was a big pile of rocks that needed
to be moved from one section of the factory grounds to
another for some construction that was planned. When the
_ Japanese made the contract, he assumed that the Americans
would move the rock with yo-ho poles and baskets as the
. Chinese would do. However, the Americans had come across a
bunch of railroad track and a little: railroad car that had
been used to haul coal from the coal Pile into the power
house at. the te
| The Chinese were hauling coal, using yo-ho poles and
baskets apparently to create more jobs for themselves rather
_ than using the train car and speeding things up. So the
~ Americans set up the railroad track, built sideboards for
the little car-so they could haul more rock at one time, and
~ moved that whole pile of rock in three days when they had
been allotted one week. TNErerore, they had four days to
ie pbs : |
The Yasume Ciub ,
So they ot ona ney some scraps of tuler around the
factory and built a little shack where they could sit in the
Shade. ??oThey called this the Yasume Club, meaning "at ease"
in Japanese. These deals continued for some time: The
Japanese making contracts and the Americans beating their
deadlines and esas Liat clubs (another was called the
Sunshine eer .
49
Americans Guilty, Chinese Blamed
The Japanese had a commissary where hha scid things to
the Japanese factory workers. One day they got in a
shipment of cigarettes and put them in a storeroom because
they intended to put them up for sale in the next couple of
days.
The Americans witnessed the storing of the cigarettes,
and the next morning a couple of them ran directly to the
storeroom, broke the lock, and stole a bunch of cigarettes,
then they put the lock back together. Later in the day, the
Japanese went after their cigarettes, discovered some were ©
missing, and thought Chinese had done it during their night
shift. Since these were a different type of cigarette than
had been around before, the Americans were afraid to smoke
them out in the open. The Japanese whom I mentioned earlier
who ran the outside details- made a contract to do a job, and
if the deadline was met, the reward would be a package of
ten cigarettes for each man. The deadline was met again,
the Americans got their cigarettes (the same brand that had
been stolen), and from that time on there was no problem
smoking the cigarettes out in the oben: :
i-kind of felt sorry for the peers leader of the
outside details, however; he was such a kind and considerate
person compared to other Japanese, and the Americans who
worked for him were always pulling tricks on him. One
morning when they came to work, he lined them up and had
them count off in Japanese so he knew how many he had to
work that day. |
He gave the command to start off, "Bongo," ("count
off"), and instead of counting off in Japanese, they counted
off in Chinese ("ee, er, san, su, woo"), or German ("eins,
zwei, drei, Whe: funt") and he would yell, "Dami, dami,"
meaning "no good. But he never got mad and hit anyone. He
used his Christian training on them. The Japanese counting
for "one, two, three, four five," was "itchey, nee, san,
sche, go," (phonetically escola
Talks I've Given and Feelings About Being a POW
A couple of times I gave talks to grade school children
at assemblies in Syracuse, and they always enjoyed the
counting in other languages.
I've done a number of other talks about my experiences
before church groups and individuals through the years.
It's never bothered me -to talk about it as it has some of
the other POWs. I don't know why others would be bothered;
maybe it's like claustrophobia. It struck me once during a
program on television in 1985 about the POW camp in
Manchuria in which medical experiments conducted on POWS
were discussed. I taped the entire program Ag ONES L
couldn't watch it then.
. ae
Several years later, in 1987, I watched it as I showed
it to my cousin Nadine. The program brought back many
unpleasant memories like these experiments that occurred
when we were living in the old camp in Manchuria. There was
so much death there. As I have said before, I was not
involved in the medical experiments, except the shots which
we figured might have been part of it.
Chitlins and Tripe
, One day the Japanese brought in a boxcar load of pork
by-products to sell in their commissary--lard, chitlins,
tripe, hogshead--and they made the fatal mistake of having
the Americans unload it and put it in the storeroom. As you
might expect, they lost a lot of it, and the poor Chinese
got the blame. ,
When inventory was done the next day, and a lot of it
was missing, the Japanese again suspected that the Chinese
had stolen it during the night. So they made. another fatal
mistake and had the Americans move it from that storeroom to
a more secure one, losing some more of it and discovering
their loss the next day. They then decided to take no
chances and had the Japanese load it back in the boxcar and
take the boxcar off the factory compound. We never did find
out what they did with it, but we had our share and for
weeks afterward we would see the yo-ho men going through the
factory hawking chitlins, concealed under the metal shavings
in their baskets.
I was able to get some of the cracklins and lard which
really tasted good in the maize and bean soup. The tripe
and chitlins had been boiled in hot lard, so they had all
'been cooked and were dried, and there wasn't any danger of
disease contamination.
od
CHAPTER 5
Nearing the End
Winter 1943-44
Air Raids
At this time we started to see reconnaissance planes
flying over Mukden. We knew what kind of planes they were
because the Japanese sounded the air raid lear aoc but toca ,
would only be one plane going over. . ae
In the spring of 1944, we had our first air raid but
never saw any planes. But they did run all the prisoners ,
back to camp until the air raid warning was over with; then
we went back to work. This happened several times during
1944, but no planes were ever sighted by us until
December 7, 1944, and we had an air raid warning about 10: :00.
in the morning and were run back to camp.
After we were in camp for about half an hour, I was
standing in the doorway of the latrine, talking to a couple
of friends, and we were wondering if the air raid warning
waS a real thing. About that time we all heard the drone of
planes, looked up, and saw high-flying planes issuing four
streamers behind each plane. We knew they were American
planes because we had never seen a Japanese plane with four
engines all the time we had been there.
About the time we recognized them as American, we heard
the bombs falling and all of us hit the ground. The
Americans, we found out later, had bombed an ammunition
factory about half a mile from our camp. We knew the
ammunition factory was there; and after the bombing, all the
buildings were flattened.
About this time, we heard another flight of bombers
coming, so all the prisoners ran out to the parade ground
and laid fiat on the ground. . Most of us. laid on our.backs
so we could watch the planes go over. This next flight flew
on past us, went on maybe five miles and dropped their load
On an aircraft factory.
The third flight of bombers came over, and as we were
watching them, we noticed one of the planes got hit and
started smoking. He headed toward the wing of the
formation, we supposed so that he wouldn't disturb the
formation of the rest of the planes on their bombing run.
While he was headed for the wing of the formation, he
was headed in the direction of our camp. And before he got
into position and started steering the same course as the
rest of the planes, the orders must have been given to drop
their bombs. As one bomb went through the top of the wall
52
and landed about twenty feet inside the wall of our camp,
-another 14it right in the middie of the\latrine. . This bomb
landed right where I had been oh elope g@uring the firet
bombing raid.
This bomb was an incendiary bomb (spreads a chemical
that starts fires) whereas the other was a high explosive.
A third bomb landed outside the camp, opposite where the
first bomb dropped, so we figured those three bombs had been
dropped from the damaged plane because the other bombs
landed on the ammunitions factory. =I :@xplain this so it-is
Clear that this was probably an accidental bombing of our
camp. We were sure that the Americans knew that our camp
was there.
The first bomb, we later found out, killed eighteen men
and injured thirty-eight. Many that were injured had
concussions and were spitting up blood; air pressure had
been increased rapidly around us and then decreased. Some
lost limbs; some had shrapnel; some were blown all to
pieces.
I was lying in a hollow place in the ground six or
eight inches deep where water may have drained and I think
that is what saved me. I was only 20 feet from the bomb
crater. |
After the bombing raid, the Japanese handed out paper
and asked that we all write home and tell them not to bomb,
that they were killing a lot of men, but when the letters
were turned in for mailing, the Japanese wouldn't mail them
because the men had pi icnja elas hae the government to send more
bombers over. ??"
We were kept in Camp for a couple of days until the
hole in the wall was fixed and some of the mess cleaned up,
_then they began sending us back to the factory again. This
bombing raid was on Pearl Harbor Day 1944, which gave us a
big boost in morale even bee es |e men had been injured and
killed.. We ??~knew the war wasn't going to last much longer.
After we yet back to work, the Japanese took one of the
- factory buildings and converted it to manufacture airplane
/. Parts. We figured that this was because the bombers had
destroyed the aircraft factory about five miles away. None
of the Americans were chaliguavcieene to work on the aircraft
ictal ad : 3 ae : |
Wi ehin a week ??~of the bombing Pace. we noticed that the
. Japanese seemed to be setting up a small camp near ours.
Phis) was. confirmed when a few days after they finished, they
| Marched about twelve caucasian men.into it. Shortly after
that, they gave our galley orders to cook up twelve
additional rations, and the Japanese hauled buckets of soup
and buns over there. | , vs :
Pearl Harbor Attacked (December, 1941). Japen's
conquests inciuded Indochina, Manchuric, and perts of China,
Japan??Ts Empire at Its Height (August, 1942) stretched
from the Netherlands East Indies to parts of the Aleuticns.
A cE
} Pe -
ee
oy We
fy
.. =
+ &
i ~
ee %e °
ee?
Surrender (August, 1945). When Japon surrendered,
ending World War Il, it still occupied parts of eastern Asia.
HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WAR IN ASIA AND THe py ??"_.
Sept. 18
July 7
??~Sept. 22
Apr. 13
June 8
Aug. 25
Dec. 7
Dec. 8
??~Dec. 9
Dec. 10-
Dec. 23
Dec. 25
Jan. 2
Jan. 11
Feb. |
??~Pep. 10
Feb. 27
Mar. 7
April 9
Apr, 18
May 4-8
May 6
June 4-6
Aug. 7
Mar. 2-5
Mar. 13
May 30
Oct. 2
Nov. |
Nov. 20
Nov. 22
Jan. 31
Feb. 17
Feo..29
Alar. 22
Apr. 22
June 15
June 15
June 19-20
July 21
Sept. 15
Oct. 20
Oct. 23-26
Jan. 9
jan, 22
Feb. 18
Apr. 1
Aug. 6
Aug. 9
Aug. 10
Aug. 14
Sent. 2
Sept. 8
Sept. 12
; eta Cee Came, ae! CE
1931
Japan invaded Manchuria in No
a, 198? :
Japan invaded China.
1940 :
Japan pushed into French Indochina
1941 .
rth Ching |
apan and Russia signed a non- :
: pact. = ??oGET estion
British and French troops invaded Sy
Russian and British torces invaded Iran,
The jensnne ara Pearl Harbor, ~
The United States declared war on Japan
China declared war on Germany, Italy,
a.
and Japan. ??" i
Guam surrendered to the Japanese.
Wake Island surrendered to the Japanese
_British troops at Hong Kong surrendered,
1942
Manila fell to invading Japanese forces.
The Japanese landed in the Netherlands
East Indies. =
U.S. ships raided the Marshalls and Gj.
berts. | 2
Singapore surrendered to the Japanese.
The Allies lost the Battle of Java Sea.
The Japanese occupied the Netherlands
East Indies. :
Bataan surrendered to the Japanese.
U.S. carrier-based aircraft bombed Tokyo.
The Allies won the Battle of the Coral Sea.
The Japanese occupiec Corregidor,
The Battle of Midway ended Japan??Ts ex-
pansion eastward. ;
??~U.S. marines landed on Guadalcanal.
1943
The Allies defeated a Japanese naval force
in the Battle of the Bismarck Sea.
Japanese troops retreated across the
Yangtze.
Organized Japanese resistance on Attu
ended. :
Allied forces captured Finschhafen. _
U.S. troops landed on Bougainville Island.
U.S. marines invaded Tarawa and Makin.
The Allies conferred at Cairo in Ezvot.
1944
U.S. troops attacked Kwajalein atoll.
U.S. naval forces raided Truk Island. _
Allied soldiers landed in the Admiraltes.
-
Japanese troops crossed the border of India. -
Allied forces landed at Hollandia.
U.S. marines invaded Saipan Island.
B-29 Superfortresses raided Japan.
U.S. forces won the Battle of the Philippine
Sea.
U.S. troops landed on Guam Island.
U.S. marines invaded Peieliu Island.
U.S. Army forces landed on Leyte. |
The U.S. Pacific Fleet crushed the .j234-
nese fleet in the Bartle for Leyte Gulf.
1945 7 ==
Allied troops invaded Luzon, Philippines.
The Ales reopened a land route to China.
U.S. marines stormed Iwo Jima Island.
U.S. troops landed on Okinawa Island.
U.S. dropped an atomic bomb on Hiro-
shima. :
An atomic bomb fell on Nagasaki.
Japan opened peace negotiations.
Japan accepted the Allied surrender terms.
Japan signed the terms of surrender.
Japanese forces in China surrendered.
Japanese troops in Southeast Asia sur-
rendered.
~~, RUSSIA Nea
Pk ,eeee 7 ,
Ce aS fa 7
Soe a UE mS Soe. pee |
H Seed sa ;
woeree ee i; :/ /
seus «°° ee hes. e/ F |
a Ae +, Manchuria Invaded .»+/ rd . |
-b° 3 Sept. 18, 1931 / 2 , |
4 i eee of 7 3
: jae a S | |
SE gia oy, + 3 -*°* KOREA JAPAN = 4 2 /
io Halsey-Deolittle te a gs /
Raid on Japon = Tokyo. ??"??"-??"??" /
CALM A ??~a7, 107 April 18, 1942 s sual in Tokyo Bay |
pea ' Hiroshima VG oes oe [ Midway So
| Aug. 6, 1945 B-29 Air Raids I June 4-6, 1942
J eae June 15, 1944-Aug., 1945
. hug. 9, 1945 :
a. i , a PACIFIC jHawallan ISLANCS
MA / wi, RYUKYU ISLANDS |
ls ??~e Wy | : a
rg ee ve elle ??o. BONIN soph nie lle
] Bee ??o= ??" Hong Xong Apr. I-June 21,1945 3 1 7 +> =>
Bad eee e a , ee VOLCANC ISLANDS \ Pear! Harbor
Lie Burma te" 87s Hong Kong Iwo Jima nt Dec. 7, 1941 -
| ba. 18-May 13, 1942 Dec. 8-25, 1941 Feb. 19-Mar. 16, 1945 a vera
7 cke Islan
i - __ French seine eanas bud Luzon Dec. 23, 194]
: Sais satiate , Dec. a, psi 2, i is 8 1944 ??" es oS o MARSHALL ISLANDS
\ Ve a PHILIPPINE Qa 23-26, 1944 Aaa ws
| | ISLANDS ~" gg, 7+ PALAU ISLANDS Beatie \
\ , wojolein
\ wie ay ??~ Peleliu Jan. 31-Fed. 7, 1944 \
a | MALAYA : Sept. 15-Oct. 13,1944 Sess etance
4\ aes oe fags ??ooe
Nie e Singepore =BORNEO _ Wee Sismarck Seq CAROLINE ISLANDS ao : | i
see 8 1981 fab 1S, beeps oe ao pe he ke Torows.
- Be -Fe 4 a a Wy Hellandia Nov. 20-23, 1943
ae i on oe eos hoe : yt ??".__-_Apr. 22-june 6, 1945 Fe ae Z
Iaseriands ibe indies * Feb. 27, 1942 ar CONEY. -- Yee Bougainville wt
??~dm. 11-Mar. ;, 1942, pe 3 ae a 4 GUINEA *. Nov. 1-24, 1943. a
. Sericaeaiee a = seg 1 3 ee tei SOLOMON ISLANDS
: eee INGIES Se a Te 71 hag, TAM -Feb, 8, 1943
3 f | = ~ so
??~Grol Sea
aT KG : May £3, 1942
ss - AUSTRALIA
-
7». ALEUTIAN
, as THE WAR AGAINST JAPAN.
VE Allied Victory
Re: Japanese Victory
\
55
Communications by Bun and Bucket
We figured that some of the bombing crews had been
Captured. Our first thought was to establish communications
with them. But the Japanese were very careful to sift
through all the soup and cut the buns open before taking the
rations over. Our men bided their time until the Japanese
relaxed their vigil, then one of our men wrote a note, put
it in a bun, baked it, and put it in the other cael Ss
supplies.
The note explained where to look for future notes. [In _
preparation for this line of communication, our carpenters.
had manufactured a wooden lid for one of these buckets that |
looked just like the rest of the lids, except it hada
concealed compartment in one of the cross pieces. that was
nailed to the lid. By sliding the cross piece, about an
inch and lifting it, the hollowed-out compartment would be
exposed. So notes were passed regularly.
We soon knew name, rank and serial number of all the
men over there, where they had come from, and got an update
on what had been happening in the war zone up to the point
of their capture.
Some of our rumors were confirmed through them. The
Japanese never did catch on to our communicating.
The Japanese had a big shrine at the factory and when
they had suffered an important defeat or the Axis forces had
suffered, they would take time over lunch for a moment of
prayer. So whenever this happened, we knew they had
suffered an important defeat and we looked for signs of what
it must have been. Eventually we would get the information.
We weren't always able to confirm our information, but
after the war, we found that we had gotten news of every
significant. happening, including. the fal1 of Sicily... the
landing on Leyte Island, the bombings of Manila, and other
important events of the war. When we thought back, we found
that sometimes we had had information within hours. |
Worse Treatment
During the winter of 1944-45, we had occasional air
raid warnings; we were run back to camp, but always returned ??"
without sighting any planes. We thought that we were
winning the war and we thought that the Japanese, once they
realized we were winning, would be giving us better
treatment. However the opposite happened; the more they
lost, the worse our treatment.
a0
Tarnished Brass
In April 1945, the Japanese brought into our camp all
the high-ranking officers that they had as prisoners, except
Wainwright and Percival (sp.), an American and a British
general. Among this group were eighteen British, Dutch and
American generals. We had an amateur cartoonist in camp who
was quite good, and after becoming acquainted with these
officers, he drew a cartoon on a piece of paper about 12" by
15" on which he lined up the eighteen generals, giving them
all small bodies and big heads. They had just portions of
their uniforms on--hats, shoulder boards, stars--some
indication of their rank, and it was so good, each of them
could be recognized.
He titled it "Tarnished Brass." He had done a number
of cartoons in camp, but this was his best, and many
prisoners got more ieee Oke Gut of it: -than??T any of His
others.
Fire
The winter of 1944-45, was a particularly cold one. The
building where all the precision measuring instruments and
tool and dye manufacturing was located had an office at one
end that was so cold that the office workers could not work
in it, so the Japanese decided to install a big electric
heater. They dug a big hole in the concrete floor, lined it
with concrete, and installed coils of resistance wire like
those in a toaster oven. It was heavy, like clothesline
wire. An electrician would say that that size wire would
use a lot of SE ae
The American electricians working with the Japanese
told their friends that it would never work; the wiring in
the building would not be able to carry that much
electricity. The project was completed and it heated the
??~building, but one morning when we were back,in camp, about
three or four o'clock, there was a lot of hooting and
hollering because the factory Cee is was burning down.
. _-We discovered later that the night watchman who was
supposed to be security for the building got cold, went in
and turned on the heat, lay down and went to sleep. While
~ he slept, the wiring burned up and started the building on
fire. The building burned to the ground, ruining all their
precision instruments, tool and dye, jig making equipment,
and office. This was the heart of their manufacturing
process and really sh Se down their work. |
| They couldn't sharpen anything; that would all have to
be done by hand... They were so smart in some ways yet so
dumb. So the rest of the winter and spring was rather
routine. The building that had burned contained the
af
offices, microscopic instruments and the ones I have
mentioned, but there were still four buildings left. Three
of them were used for manufacturing the automatic lathe.
They did salvage some of the machines from the bombed-out |
ammunitions factory and had brought them into the factory
for repair, but that was not a big operation.
Rumors That the End is Near
Things were routine until about May 1945. In July, we
began to hear rumors that the Russians had declared war on
the Japanese. About this time, we noticed that the Japanese
were digging a lot of ditches in the roads around our
factory and covering them up with materials that looked
similar to the original road. Some of our Army men decided
that these were tank traps that they were building, and that
tended to confirm our rumor that the Russians had declared
war on the Japanese and were moving down Manchuria toward
Mukden. We continued to have air raid warnings and were run
back to camp, were Cleared and went back to work until
sometime in the early part of August when the air raid
warning sounded and we were run back to camp and did not go
back to work. 7
After the war, we thought back and decided that this
was when the first atomic bomb was dropped on Japan. For
the rest of the time, we stayed in camp and had no
particular duties, just: tying: around, taking: it easy.
The War is Over
One day several of us on the upper floor were looking
out the windows toward an air field close by and saw an
airplane flying low over the air field. We were looking at
the side silhouette and couldn't tell how many motors it
had. It dropped different colored parachutes, went down and
turned around, and came down the opposite course, dropping
about six white parachutes.
We thought at the time, that the Japanese were
practicing dropping parachute troops because of the
Russians; however, that afternoon, six Americans were
brought into the Japanese side of the camp, and the Japanese
immediately brought them over to see our officers, and we
learned that the war was over. They had been ordered in
there to make sure that the Japanese did not molest us in
any way until we had been repatrioted.
We found out from those Americans that we were going to
be liberated by the Russians, who had not made it to Mukden
yet, so the Americans were there to protect us. The
Americans had no authority to take over the camp; they were
just observers. But they did have radio equipment so they
could keep contact with our forces, and as soon as they had
58
consolidated their position, the B-29s started flying Over,
dropping food and clothing (the very next day). They
ee movies, projectors, and screens also ee parachute.
From the time those six Americans were brought into, our
camp, the Japanese were not permitted in again, and once the
B-29s started dropping food and clothing, our diet changed
tremendously. It took the Russians about another week to
get to Mukden, and then they took over the camp, lining up
all the American Marine POWs and the Japanese guards and
officers opposite them.
The Russian officers took the Samari swords from the
Japanese officers and handed them to the Americans; they
also took the enlisted Japanese men's rifles and gave them
to the Americans. Then the Japanese were put in the brig,
and the Americans became the guards.
Needless??T to say, there was a little bit of ??~torturing on
the other side now. fa
: The day before the war ended, the men who worked in our
galley received word from the Japanese to prepare three
hundred traveling rations to be used the next day, but the
-war ended the next day, so the traveling rations were not
used. 228 | a8
We found out later that the Japanese were going to take
150 of the highest ranking men from our camp, retreat below
the Yalu River and make their stand there against the
Russians because at that point they could destroy all the
bridges across that river and make a good oe
position. .
i We ??~also found out that if they had retreated, they were
| going to destroy the rest of the men who were left in camp.
So it's a good thing the six Americans parachuted in there;
the Japanese were deterred. We do not know what may have
happened © Le ney had oe
- Samari Svords--War ??~Booty.
Once the Russians Loc over the camp, we were pretty
much on our own to come and go as we pleased except we had.
to be there: for roll call in the morning and back by dusk in
the evening. One thing we were determined to do was get
some Samari swords.
We found aut where the Russians nad congregated all the
Japanese whom they had captured, and since by that time we
had plenty of cigarettes, we each took a carton, got a
couple of old rickshaw coolies and had them take us out to.
the camp where the Japanese solders and officers were. We
convinced one of) the Russian hs aebacca to go. -in and get three
a
Samari. swords for us for a carton of cigarettes. The Samari
swords were passed down in Japanese families and were
valuable war booty. Most of them had the history of the
sword engraved underneath the hilt. You had to take the
handle of the sword off in order to read the engraving.
Another day we took some cigarettes with us and went in
town to have our photographs taken. We were already
starting to put on a little weight. The first time they
weighed us at New Hoten Camp, I was 90 pounds so I must have
gotten down to 80 pounds at one time. :
The group that was working in the tannery woke up the
morning after the war ended and found their guards gone so
they figured the war was over and confiscated an old Chinese
cart, a two-wheel cart to haul things on, with a Manchurian
pony that pulled it. They went across to a brewery, loaded
it up with beer, and marched into camp with it. They
continued this until the Russians made them stop.
On Our Way Home
The Russians didn't take us out of the camp right away
because the Japanese had blown up all the bridges across the
Yalu River in preparation for their retreat. We were kept
in camp until one of the bridges was rebuilt, so they could
take us by train to the nearest seaport. We were shipped
out about the middle of September 1945 and were taken to
Dairen, Manchuria. 3 :
We were sprayed for lice on the pier. One of our big
problems as POWs was lacking hot water to wash clothes and.
having to wear the same clothes all winter. The clothing
that the Japanese gave us was fleece-lined, and after
wearing it for awhile, we would get body lice. The eggs
were laid in the fleece lining, and the only way to kill
them was to boil the clothes. All winter we were eaten up
by those little creatures, and all summer we were eaten by
sand fleas, so there was no relief. We could wash our
clothes in the summer, but could not kill the eggs. So we
were glad to get sprayed.
One time, I think in the summer of 1944, our officers
finally talked the Japanese into issuing us a new set of
Clothes and letting us take a bath. We took our old clothes
and hung them over ropes in the community bath. The bath
was covered with canvas and the steam turned on until-«the
lice eggs were killed. But this had to be a continuing
process in order to get rid of them, so that winter we got
them again. |
We went aboard ship, were issued new clothing, took
showers, and got rid of our old clothing. The ship set sail
for Okinawa, and we arrived there about three days later. I
60
remember that when I looked over that harbor there were
American ships as far as I could see. I, didn't know there
were that many ships in the Navy, and that was only part of
them. |
??oWe had just anchored at Okinawa when we got orders to
go back to sea to ride out a typhoon, which we did all night
long. We were still in the East China Sea and had lookouts
posted for floating mines.
At seven o'clock the next morning the typhoon was over,
and we were riding along at five knots per hour. My friend
and I were sitting on a bit (a big post that the ship is
tied to the dock with), reading the morning news that the
radiomen had copied during the night. I was facing forward,
and my friend was facing aft, and the ship hit a floating
mine at the water line about five feet aft of where we were
sitting.
The explosion went straight up and hit a lifeboat
hanging over the side; the ship took a sharp port list
(listing to the side I was on), and I thought it was going
to turn over. There was a doorway into the superstructure
of' the ship where I was sitting; I ran in there and ran up a
ladder to the upper deck, not wanting to get trapped in the
lower deck if the ship turned over. ,All the stuff that went
up, however, was coming down, so I didn't: step out on deck,
but, fortunately, the ship had righted itself.
The mine had hit the engine room, flooding it, and we
lost all the main engine and electrical power. We were dead
in the water. Meanwhile, I looked for the fellow who had
been sitting next to me. When I found him, he was racked
with pain in his ears, and neither of us could hear very
??owell. .He went down to see the doctor who said he had two
broken ear drums. I went down myself, although I wasn't in
pain, but my left eardrum was also broken. It healed
although my hearing never came back to normal. My friend
had been eee the blast; that's why he suffered a greater
injury. ,
= notte: ship towed us into ot Meas where we were
off-loaded and sent to a Red Cross Camp and were able to get
= shaving gear, toothpaste, tooth brushes, shoes, underwear,
??~and??T all the things we Beads Also soda pop, candy, and gum
, were EE eG es
F We were only. there for a few Baran and they jradanay
séeted us out, sending some of us Back to the U.S: by plane.
I owas sent to Guam where we were put in a hospital _
temporarily and were checked over. Those who had serious
illnesses were: flown back to the U.S. I must have been
there about a week and was then sent oe a ss ship far
transportation back to the a |
~??"
61
When we got to San Francisco, I was sent to the Oakland
Naval Hospital where I was promoted to Chief Machinist Mate
and was paid $1000 plus $250 clothing allowance to buy my
Chief's uniforms. After a medical examination, I was flown
to the Balboa Naval Hospital,in San Diego where I was a
patient for six months. 7
October 25, 1945
I had been gone since November 13 1939,
When I checked into the naval hospital, I got a taxi,
and gave the driver an address where my wife Betty was . Be
supposed to be. I took all my gear out, paid him, and told
the driver he could leave. I went up to the door, knocked, ©
and I could see someone in the kitchen who at first ignored
my knocking.
Finally she answered, but she was not Betty and she had.
never heard of her. She did not know where my wife was, and ??"
neither did the neighbors. I noticed that the cab driver
was still waiting, so I had him take me back to the
hospital. ; :
It was too late to do anything that night. The next
morning I called my dad at the Milwaukee Round House in
Council Bluffs, Iowa, and the secretary got him right away.
We talked and cried a little bit, and I asked him, "Where's
Betty? I went out there and she wasn't there." He said,
"She had to move because the owner wanted to sell it. Once
the war was over, he kept after her until she had to move.
She moved to Federal Housing.
She had notified the Red Cross, but the message never
got to me. My father did not have her address or telephone
number, but he said he would call my mother as soon as we
hung up and get it. He apparently called Betty because
about an hour later Betty called me. I was quite relieved;
I had become a worried sailor. So many others had come back
and found out that their wives had gotten a divorce and
Married again, or assumed their husbands had been killed and
married again with no divorce.
Betty had not known that I was a prisoner until about a
year after I was captured. Many soldiers had been missing.
When I got back to:.Council Bluffs, a lot of people thought
they were seeing a ghost; the last they had heard of me, I
was missing in action.
After I was released from the hospital, I was assigned
there for duty; I got my commission as an Ensign there, made
Lieutenant Junior Grade there, and was assigned to duty as
the Maintenance Officer. From there I was assigned to
Engineering Officer of a destroyer escort, the USS George
62
(DE-697/. While I was on the George, I was sent to
Hawaii for about a year and a half.
Next I did about thirty months with the Recreation
Department of the Naval Training Center at San Diego, and
was then assigned as Engineer Officer of the (LSD 22/ USS
Fort Manion, a landing ship dock, and after that I did
three years as the Assistant for Material for the inspector
of Naval Material at Syracuse, New York. Right after I
arrived in Syracuse, I was promoted to Lieutenant Commander.
After Syracuse, I became an Engineer Officer of the
USS Toledo (CA-/33/, putting that ship out of commission in
Long Beach, California in 1960. So I was on her from about
August 1959 to about August 1960. Then I was assigned as
Engineer Officer on the WSS Helena ([CA-75/; both these
last two ships were heavy cruisers.
I was relieved of that job about August 1961 when I was
assigned to the maintenance section of the Commander
Amphibious Force Pacific Staff. I retired from the Navy
after this assignment on April 1, 1966. After a couple
months vacation, I went to work for the National Steel and
Ship Building Company in San Diego as a machinist foreman
where I worked for six months when I was offered a Navy
civilian job for the supervisor of Ship Building,
Conversion, and Repair where I worked for another twelve
years and retired about May of 1979.
ve
Chetek Vhs aol Os se oe ur rif¢
Meoten, Alorconakac
Surre 14 1945S.
Aitacugh eek z.at??" repay ment ss inpassibie , we wisn To Crerers ow
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Ta Beezer Joke
I was a prisoner of war of the sapeneee Goring World
War ii oh Mukden, Manchuria. We vere put to work ina ee
machine tool factory where we worked alongside Japanese and
Manchurian civilians. ??"
We were pretty friendly with the Manchurians, and not
being interested in our work, were constantly in search of
ways to amuse ourselves. One way was to poke ewticatofhe
Japanese and Manchurians to their face when We were sure
they couldn't understand what we were sé ying. We would |
smile, as we insulted them in good, clean fun, calling them
"slope heads." Everyone would have a good laugh, inetd ing
the Manchurians. |
This went on for months without the Manchurians getting
wise to us, we thought. However, I began to notice a
certain expression that the Manchurians were repeatedly
using, and they seemed to be referring to the Americans.
Every time they used it, everyone would have a good laugh.
I'm not sure of the spelling but it sounded like "Ta
Beezer." Sometimes they would drag out the "a" in the "Ta"
like "Ta-a-a-a Beezer."
Finally my curiosity got the better of me, and I talked
a Manchurian into giving me the meaning of "Ta Beezer." I
found out that all the time we were calling them Slope
Heads, they were calling us Big Nose, and the longer the
"a" in the "Ta," the bigger the nose.
Vernon G. LaHeist
LCDR, USN
66
THIS IS WAR
At the beginning of World War II in the last month of
fighting on Corregidor food was scarce and the troops were
only receiving two meals a day. These meals consisted of
rice and gravy with an occasional canned vegetable or a
small amount of canned meat. After about a month on these
short rations most of the men were getting pretty hungary.
The Naval Officers on the island had apparently managed
their menu's so as to stretch their food farther and were
able to have more meat and deserts than the enlisted men dur-
ing this short ration period. The enlisted men were aware of
this since the officers' dining room was open to the view of
anyone walking through the Navy Tunnel. ,
On May 6, 1942, Corregidor surrenaered and before the
Japs could get to the Navy Tunnel to take it over there was
quite a lot of looting for food going on. One group of
sailors spotted the refrigerator in the officers??T saliey and
were busy loSting it for food when a young Ensign walked upsAuo
trying to show his authority said, "What the hell do you call
this?". At this a burly boatswainsmate pulled his head out
of the refrigerator and trying??T to mimic President Roosevelt
said, "Haven't you heard? This is WeA-A-A-R", then went
right back to looting. a.
??o6 bs ie tak
V. G. LaHEIST
LCDR, USN
FOSLP §
In 1935, I was a fireman in the Navy on board??T the heavy
cruiser USS INDIANAPOLIS. I was assigned the job of wearing
the telephone headset for my watch section in number one
fireroom. The ship was on War maneuvers in tropical waters
and we had just finished several hours of intensive mancuver=
ing and had slowed our speed for steady steaming the remainder
of the day.
The Engineer Officer was in the controlling engineroom
Giving orders to the various engineering spaces attempting to
settle the plant down for good economical steaming. As orders
came over my phone for number one fireroom I vould pass them
on to the Chief of the Watch who would see that the proper
action was taken. 3
All of the fireroom crew was anxious to get the machinery
set so that they could relax and cool off a little, but every
time they thought they could do so another order would come
from the engineroom to ??oraise the air pressure two tenths of
an inch" or to make some other minor chance. tnough the
changes were minor they still required adjustments on other
machinery and kept the whole watch active. Consequently
the Chief of the Watch was getting more irritated each time
I would repeat an order to him that had been relayed over the
phone. Since the Chief was getting so irritated I was almost
afraid to pass another order to him when after just passing
an order to "raise the air pressure two tenths of an inch"
another order came through to ??olower the air pressure two
tenths of an inch". I knew when I received this order that it
would probably be the one that would really cause the Chief to
explode. Up to this point I had held my temper, but this time
I'm afraid I used the Lord's name in vain as I commented to
what I thought was another fireman on the other end of the phone
"Jesus Christ". At this a huskier voice than usual piped up 4NO
said; "Son what is your name?"., With that I knew the Engineer
Officer had been listening in so I gave my name. I was then
ordered to report to the Engineer Officer in Main Engine Control.
On my arrival in Main Engine Control I walked up to the
Engineer Officer, saluted smartly and reported. He then looked
at me and said, "Son - next time I give you an order don't
appeal to Christ for help. You are excused now report back to
your duty. station."
As I was going up the ladder leaving the engineroom I could
hear muffeled giggles, but I dared not show any of that kind of
emotion myself even though I did find out later that the
Engineer Orficer was the first to start gigglinz.
6b.%6 Met
V. G. LaHEIST
LCDR, USN
68
The following poem was written by J.W. Fleming (POW # 692) at Hoten Camp # 1,
Mukden, Manchuria. He was a member of the 200th. Coast Artillery. His last known
address was 410 So. Giard St., Albuquerque, N.M. He wrote the poem in July 1943,
just before we moved into our new camp that was built 1/2 mile from the factory we
worked in. The new camp had about a 10 foot brick wall around
it. He was killed on
Dec. 7, 1944 by an American bomb, dropped by a B-29. We believe this was a stray
bomb dropped by a plane that had been hit. It was one of 3 bombs dropped by this
plane. The bomb that killed Fleming, knocked out about a 15 foot section of the wall
around the camp. (Note the last stanza of the poem).
I watch this wall so strong and tall.
it stands a challenge to us aii.
These walls, of life, a prison make,
For through it??Ts arms, we cannot break.
A thousand souls beneath it be,
And wait the day when they are free.
Sad children of a gladder day,
For all their pleasures now they pay.
But now they sit and watch and wait,
And in their heart there burns a hate.
A drone will come from out the East,
And make the noise as of a beast.
And in that rain of steel and fire,
Will come the freedom we desire.
So watch this wall and wait the day,
When bricks and wall about us lay.
In 1989 we attended a POW Reunion in Springfield, Mo., at
from Albuquerque, N.M. Through him I was able to make contact
wife and give her a copy of this poem.
which I met a POW
with J.W. Fleming's